Controversy as Chinese team claim to be close to eliminating malaria from Indian Ocean island

31 Mar 2009

Paul Chinnock

Source: World News (Australia) (see original article)

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Mohéli island, Comoros.
Dick Walrus.

Chinese scientists working in the island of Mohéli in Comoros say they have cut malaria infection rates from 22% to 2% in little over a year and expect soon to eliminate the disease there. However, the claim has been dismissed by Western scientists as “anecdotal” and there are concerns over the method used, which involves mandatory administration of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) to the entire population.

Mohéli is an island in the Indian Ocean which has a population of less than 40,000 people, but the view of the Chinese team is that if malaria can be eliminated here then similar methods can be successfully used to eliminate it from the entire African continent and worldwide. Professor Song Jiangping who leads the Chinese project told an Australian TV programme that, “The Mohéli project has been running for a year now and is problem free. The experience clearly tells us that malaria can be eradicated globally in a short period. No need to wait with so many lives and resources wasted. The key point is to take an active approach”.

ACT is already recommended as the mainstay of malaria treatment worldwide. However, it is not recommended for use to prevent the disease, mainly because of fears that this would hasten the development of artemisinin resistance. Mass drug administration, which is used successfully in the control of a number of infectious diseases (for example, onchocerciasis and hookworm), is therefore not recommended for the control of malaria. Compulsory administration of any drug to an entire population would also not be regarded as acceptable in many societies.

Also interviewed by the TV programme was a World Health Organization official who said that the claims made by the Chinese team were based on laboratory tests that were not sufficiently thorough. Professor Richard Feachem, well known in malaria research, told the programme that there was a “wealth of knowledge” from Chinese medical research that could prove of value worldwide but that the claims made for the Mohéli project were at this stage only anecdotal.

The TV programme asks, however, whether the Western medical establishment is prejudiced against research that is performed by Chinese scientists.

Professor Jiangping says that data from the Mohéli project will be written up soon and submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. It is planned to employ his team’s approach next to malaria elimination in the considerably larger island of Madagascar, population 20 million.

The entire TV programme may be viewed on the website of World News of Australia.