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In 1955, China established a National Malaria Control Programme. Communities rallied to improve irrigation, reduce mosquito breeding grounds, use insecticide spraying and sleep under bed nets. Health authorities worked to locate and stop the spread of outbreaks.

Progress was steady. By the end of 1990, the total number of cases nationwide had plummeted to some 117 000, and malaria-related deaths were reduced by 95%.

With support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, beginning in 2003, China stepped up the training, staffing, laboratory equipment, medicines and mosquito control measures that were needed to quickly find, treat and prevent malaria cases.

Global Fund support totalling over US$ 100 million was disbursed over a 10-year period to help end malaria in 762 counties. In that time, the number of malaria cases fell to fewer than 5000 per year.

In 2010, China set an ambitious target: to eliminate malaria by 2020. This was a response to the country’s progress in malaria control and to the malaria target of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, which called for halting and reversing the incidence of the disease by the year 2015.

Through a sweeping agreement, 13 ministries – including those representing health, education, finance, research and science, development, public security, the army, police, commerce, industry and information technology, media and tourism – joined forces to end the risk of malaria nationwide.

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