[Malaria situation in the People's Republic of China in 1994. Advisory Committee on Malaria, MOPH]

Abstract

According to case reporting system, the number of malaria cases amounted to 62,101 in the country (Taiwan Province not included) in 1994, showing a mean incidence of 5,292 per a hundred thousand, and 43 deaths were caused by the disease. An increase of 3,532 malaria cases was revealed while comparing with the data of 1993. A total of 1,083 billion population resided in areas where there were no reported malaria cases or the incidence was below 0.01%, 80 million in areas with incidence of 0.01-0.1%, and 10 million in areas with incidence of more than 0.1%. In Wanding City on located the border of Yunnan Province, the incidence remained over 1% in a population of 11,000. Malaria surveillance in major malarious areas located in 18 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities (P/A/M) with a coverage of 0.53 billion population showed that 68,612 positive cases were detected from 11,068,110 febrile patients through blood examination, the mean positive rate being 0.62%. 3,928 malaria parasite carriers were discovered from 504,685 target and migratory population during general examination, the mean parasite carrier rate being 0.78%. In view of the fact that migratory immigrants were usually not included in the province-based case reporting system and case missing was likely to exist in the reporting process, the actual number of malaria cases was estimated to be no less than 100,000 in 1994. More or less resurgence of malaria prevalence was noted in most of the southern P/A including Hainan, Yunnan. Guangxi, Guizhou and Fujian, while a decrease of incidence was reported in Guangdong and Sichuan. The situation of the former 5 P/A was attributed to the continuous expansion of migratory population, the existence of anopheline mosquitos with potent vectorial capacity, the inadequacy of funding allocation, and the difficulties in implementation of malaria control measures. Because of the increase in imported malaria cases from southern China, fluctuation of malaria prevalence was seen in 4 eastern P/M, i.e. Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Shanghai. 7,959 falciparum malaria cases (comprising mixed infections of Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax) were detected in the whole country in 1994, constituting 11.60% of the positive cases disclosed by blood examination; and 325 P. falciparum carriers were found in general examination. Hainan and Yunnan have been the principal endemic areas of falciparum malaria, whereas endogenous falciparum malaria cases were found in one county each in Guangxi and Guizhou. The occurrence of imported falciparum malaria cases was reported from 116 counties in 16 P/A/M (the above 4 P/A included).