China’s long march to malaria elimination: a case of adaptive management

• Published in: Malaria Journal
• Main Authors: Duo-quan Wang, Xiao-hui Liang, Shen-ning Lu, Wei Ding, Jing Huang, Xin Wen, Shan Lv, Ning Xiao, Lewis Husain, Xiao-Nong Zhou
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2022
• Subjects: China; Malaria elimination; Adaptive; Global health; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic; Pacific
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-04038-w; https://doaj.org/article/c6d1e31bf13b44b09e8cd5f5a473981b

Abstract Since the 1950s, China has transitioned from a malaria pandemic country with tens of millions of annual cases, through phases of local control and elimination, to sustained national malaria elimination efforts. This marks the first time a country in the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific region has been certified malaria-free in more than 3 decades. This article provides an innovative approach to understanding China’s malaria elimination journey. A number of articles and commentaries have analysed the effectiveness of specific technical approaches implemented in China. Our argument is that we need to look beyond these, and consider the ways in which policy development and implementation capacities have been fostered to support the dynamic change management. The article makes a number of arguments. First is the pragmatic adaptiveness of policies and strategies—and implementation capacities. Second, China has invested in building systems as well as capacities to support the elimination of parasitic diseases, including malaria. Third, the country has both benefited from, and contributed to, global health collaboration on malaria elimination. The ongoing work by the authors is identifying a number of key factors.