China became the 40th territory certified malaria-free on Wednesday by the World Health Organization, following a 70-year battle to eradicate the vector-borne disease.
The Asian country has gone four consecutive years without a report of a local case of malaria. This is after annual malaria reports in the country were as high as 30 million in the 1940s.
WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, congratulated the country on its new malaria-free status.
“We congratulate the people of China on ridding the country of malaria. Their success was hard-earned and came only after decades of targeted and sustained action. With this announcement, China joins the growing number of countries that are showing the world that a malaria-free future is a viable goal,” he said.
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Countries with at least three consecutive years of zero indigenous cases can apply for WHO certification of their malaria-free status. They must present rigorous evidence — and demonstrate the capacity to prevent transmission re-emerging.
Beijing hailed the WHO’s certification as a great achievement for China’s human rights cause.
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The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, at a routine briefing in Beijing, said that the elimination of the disease was a “great contribution by China to human health and global human rights progress”.
China becomes the 40th territory certified malaria-free by the Geneva-based WHO. The last countries to gain the status were El Salvador (2021), Algeria and Argentina (2019), and Paraguay and Uzbekistan (2018).
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