The prevention and control of tropical diseases is a key task of the UN's sustainable development agenda. The Chinese government has always paid great attention to this task and has set up prevention mechanisms and expert teams to not only safeguard domestic public health but also share China's experience and wisdom with other countries.

Platforms share global fight against tropical diseases 

"In recent years, China has established a research network for international or regional tropical disease prevention and control, set up overseas tropical disease prevention and control bases, organized personnel training and academic exchanges for senior international talents, participated in consultations and technological support activities to suppress global and regional tropical diseases, and shared our nation's experience of disease control with countries facing epidemics. China has often been highly evaluated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations, which has led to constant expansion of China's global influence," said Zhou Xiaonong, director of the institute for the prevention and control of parasitic diseases at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Zhou added that, with the support of WHO, the institute cooperated with the School of Pharmacy of Fudan University in 2017 to set up the Asia-Pacific Network for Drug, Diagnostic and Vaccine Innovation, participated in by 14 countries and regions.

In 2017, together with organizations in 12 countries the institute established a network for the elimination of hydatid and taeniasis, and, since 2014, has organized four sessions with Myanmar on malaria eradication at the China-Myanmar border, beginning a network of joint malaria prevention and control.

Since 2015, the institute has dispatched more than 30 experts to set up overseas tropical disease prevention bases in Tanzania, exploring the feasibility of applying China’s malaria prevention experience in African countries; it has also sent experts to Papua New Guinea to establish a laboratory for malaria control, improving the nation's malaria diagnosis and case management capacity.

Set up joint prevention and control mechanisms 

Malaria and dengue fever are highly prevalent in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. In 2005, the Yunnan Provincial Institute for the Control of Parasitic Diseases began by establishing a joint malaria prevention project for two bordering counties. Since then, over the past 13 years, it has set up joint prevention and control mechanisms on malaria and dengue fever with Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

"By the end of 2017, the project covered eight prefectures (cities) and 19 counties on Yunnan border. We hold periodic meetings every year with the above-mentioned countries on contagious disease control. We train medical staff for the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. In addition, we cooperate with the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Liverpool on malaria and dengue fever prevention and control," said Zhou Hongning, the director of the Yunnan Provincial Institute for the Control of Parasitic Diseases.

From 2011 to 2017 the Yunnan institute trained more than 100 medical staff and 1,000 personnel for malaria and dengue fever monitoring for five countries in the Lancang-Mekong River area.

And, in 2016 and 2017 it set up a networked laboratory in the Lao border area for the monitoring of insect-borne infectious diseases.