Objective: To analyze malaria situation and epidemic characteristics in 2012 in China, and provide evidence and reference for National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) performance.
Methods: The epidemiological data of malaria cases reported through the annual malaria statistics reporting system in 2012 were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010 and ArcGIS 10.0.
Results: Totally 2,718 malaria cases were reported from 620 counties of 31 Provinces/Municipalities/Autonomous Regions (P/M/A) in 2012, representing 39.3% reduction compared with 4,479 cases in 2011, and the annual incidence was 0.020 2/10,000. The cases were mainly reported from provinces of Yunnan (31.4%, 853/2,718), Guangxi (8.1%, 220/2,718), Jiangsu (7.3%, 198/2,718), Hunan (5.8%, 158/2,718), and Sichuan (5.7%, 155/2,718). Among the 620 counties with reported cases, 8 counties including Motuo (8.1818/10,000) in Tibet, Ruili (8.248 9/10,000), Yingjiang (3.021 4/10,000), Longchuan (1.4778/10,000), Mangshi (1.4244/10,000), Tengchong (3.1601/10,000) and Cangyuan (1.340 0/10,000) in Yunnan, and Shanglin (2.355 1/10,000) in Guangxi had an incidence between 1/10,000 and 10/10,000, 96 counties had an incidence between 0.1/10,000 and 1/10,000, and that of the others was below 0.1/10,000. The laboratory confirmed cases took 95.6% (2.599/2,718) while the other 4.4% (119/2,718) were clinically diagnosed. In detail, 39.7% (1080/2,718) were P. vivax cases, 52.2% (1.419/2,718) were P. falciparum cases, 1.6%(44/2,718) were mixed infection of P. vivax and P. falciparum, and 2.1% (56/2,718) were P. ovale and P. malariae cases. However, the proportions of lab-confirmed cases in Xinjiang, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Tibet, Ningxia, Shanxi and Qinghai were below 75.0%. A total of 182 (6.7%, 182/2,718) indigenous cases were reported from 41 counties in 5 provinces including 20 counties of Yunnan, 15 counties of Anhui, 4 counties of Hubei, 1 county of Tibet and 1 county of Guangxi, consisting of 38 (20.9%, 38/182) clinically diagnosed cases (30 cases from Yunnan and 8 from Tibet), 133 (73.1%, 133/182) P. vivax cases (92 cases from Yunnan, 30 from Anhui, 9 from Hubei, 1 from Guangxi and 1 from Tibet), and 9 (4.9%, 9/182) P. falciparum cases as well as 2 (1.1%, 2/182) mixed infections from Yunnan. The incidence of indigenous cases between 1/10,000 and 10/10,000 was found only in Motuo County of Tibet, and that of the others was below 1/10,000. Out of the 2,718 malaria cases, a proportion of 91.0% (2,474/2,718) were reported as the abroad-imported cases who distributed in 29 provinces, and the remaining 2.3% (62/2,718) were domestically-mobile cases reported from 10 provinces. Totally 145 (5.3%, 145/2,718) severe cases were reported from 15 provinces and 15 (0.6%, 15/2,718) malaria deaths were from 11 provinces.
Conclusion: Generally the indigenous malaria was reduced closer to the NMEP target, while malaria importation becomes an increasing challenge.