GENEVA — China is on the verge of eliminating malaria, a senior Chinese health official told a side-gathering on May 22 during the World Health Assembly (WHA) at which Beijing was praised for its efforts in helping other county’s fight the lethal disease.

Cui Li, vice minister of China’s National Health Commission, on May 22 addressed an event titled “Country-led and country-owned efforts on malaria elimination to achieving universal health coverage” at Geneva’s Palais des Nations during the annual WHA.

“In 2017, for the first time, zero indigenous cases were reported in China, thus the efforts have had a significant impact on the country’s elimination road map,” said Cui at the event that was co-sponsored by China.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked China for its sponsorship role along with Myanmar and Sri Lanka and praised China for what is doing to fund the fight against malaria.

Tedros said that since the year 2000, good progress had been made, but “we are at the crossroads,” while noting that the fight against malaria needs to be sustained.

“We have more than 200 million cases of malaria a year and more than 90 percent of them are in Africa, so the focus on Africa is important,” said Tedros, an Ethiopian who had specialized in malaria before taking the helm of the WHO last year.

Chinese officials has explained that in the case of China, to fulfill and assess the elimination process and achieve the goal of certification by the World Health Organization, China has adopted the county, prefecture, and subnational verification since 2012.

Cui said that the Ministry of Health in China jointly with 12 ministries issued its National Malaria Elimination Action Plan 2010-2020 in June 2010, to kick off the country’s campaign to eradicate the disease.

She said the overall goals of the malaria elimination campaign in China were set to achieve complete elimination in the country by 2020.