Oct 12, 2015 During the recently held 2nd Ministerial Forum on Africa-China Health Development in South Africa, health officials hailed Chinese drug Artemisinin for its role in combating malaria.
According to experts the drug, which was discovered by Chinese scientist and Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou, has reduced the mortality rate in Africa.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Tshedi Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa said:
“This drug has made such a tremendous difference to global health really. We particularly appreciate it in the African region as you know malaria is one of the biggest killers of African people, particularly African children. And we were discussing the malaria development goals last week in the New York in the UN General Assembly; it was acknowledged that the African countries have made tremendous progress in reducing child death,”
Comoros, one of the African countries benefiting from the drug, launched a malaria control program in 2007 and only three months later the infection rate of the disease dropped by 98.7 percent.
Fouad Mohadji, Vice President of Comoros, said:
“Comoros and China’s cooperation has made great achievements in the health sector, especially in the anti-malaria program. It is a big success not only for the Chinese scientist who won the Nobel Prize, but also for the people of Comoros,”
Following the success of Comoros’ anti-malarial program, Malawi has recently launched a similar program using the same therapy.
Dr. Peter Kumpalume, Malawi’s Minister of Health said:
“If you can remove, if you can get rid of malaria that means we can free 60 percent of budget. So that is a good relationship that we have with china in health sector,”