Comoros, located in Africa, is known as the "Land of the Moon". Li Guoming did not expect that he would form a deep friendship with this island country thousands of miles away that spanned more than 10 years.
Li Guoming is a member of the Artemisia annua antimalarial medical team of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. For more than half a century, this team has been working on the global fight against malaria. After three generations, the team independently developed the artemisinin compound, forming a malaria prevention and control program of "universal medication, mass prevention and treatment, and malaria eradication", contributing "Chinese prescriptions" to the global antimalaria.
This young team, with 40 members, 75% of whom are under the age of 35, is the only foreign medical team in mainland China that has gone overseas to carry out artemisinin prevention and treatment of malaria. A few days ago, the medical team was awarded the "China Youth May Fourth Medal Collective".
More than 30 million patients worldwide have benefited from antimalarial programmes
Malaria is a worldwide public health problem. Since the 60s of the last century, Guangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine has taken advantage of the discipline of Chinese medicine and the geographical location of Lingnan to devote itself to the clinical application research of artemisinin.
As the first-generation leader of the global antimalaria team of the Guangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Artemisia Annua Center, the scientific research team led by Li Guoqiao has repeatedly tested the "worm" to find the development law of the malaria parasite, which has laid the foundation for the development of antimalarial drug clinical trials.
After several generations of hard work, the artemisinin compound formula independently developed by the team has been included in the World Health Organization's "Malaria Treatment Guidelines", and has formed a "Chinese plan" for the prevention and treatment of artemisinin compound malaria that embodies the essence of ancient Chinese medicine wisdom. The program aims to eliminate the source of malaria by taking artemisinin compounds throughout the population to eliminate the malaria parasite.
Members of the medical team went to the countryside of the Comoros to conduct household surveys.
In the eyes of the locals of Comoros, malaria used to be "a plague that brought crying and screaming". Children under the age of 5 are not given names because of the very high malaria mortality rate among children. However, at first, the local rollout of universal medication did not go well.
"Why do you need to take medicine if you don't get sick?" and "Is this medicine poisonous?" many local residents questioned. In order to dispel the doubts of the residents, the medical team got up early and worked late every day to carry out science popularization from house to house, holding loudspeakers, shouting from village to village, and the President of the Comoros, the Minister of Health, religious elders, and other prestigious people, as well as the medical team members, took the lead in taking medicine, and the situation was slowly opened. After the demonstration effect, the method of rapid source elimination and malaria elimination of artemisinin compound began to be promoted in more areas.
Artemisia annua, to the world. Artemisinin piperaquine tablets with independent intellectual property rights have been granted patents in 40 countries and drug registration approvals in 26 countries, benefiting more than 30 million malaria patients around the world. The "China Plan" has been applied to the Comoros, Togo, Papua New Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe and other Belt and Road countries, effectively controlling the malaria epidemic in their areas.
Kiriwina Island, Papua New Guinea, for universal medication.
Among them, the number of malaria cases in Comoros has been reduced by more than 99%, achieving zero malaria deaths, the total carrier rate of the population in Papua New Guinea has been reduced by 87.20%, and the synergistic effect of malaria control has been generated within 1.5 km and a limited time interval of 38 weeks in the demonstration village of Sao Tome and Principe, which has effectively suppressed the spread of malaria to the surrounding areas.
"Malaria, which has plagued the Comoroians for thousands of years, has finally been eradicated with the help of a team of Chinese experts. The relevant person in charge of the Comoros government department said.
Generations of malaria have been "dead" from generation to generation
On the road to fight malaria, not only the language barrier and the residents' doubts, but also the difficult environment also tested the team members.
As a representative of the second generation of "Artemisia annua", Song Jian, director of the Artemisia annua Center of Guangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine, travels all over the world all year round to carry out field research and clinical trials.
In 2001, Song Jianping was sent to Cambodia and stayed for five years. "Sanitation is poor, houses are made of sticks, bed bugs are everywhere, there is no clean drinking water, and diseases such as acute gastroenteritis, kidney stones and dengue fever come to our door from time to time. Song Jianping said.
It was in this environment that Song Jianping led his team members to visit villages and households to help the local malaria prevention and control. At present, Cambodia has also entered the list of countries designated by WHO as pre-elimination of malaria.
Members of the medical team went to the countryside to guide and supervise the work of taking medicine for the whole people.
Across the mountains and seas, the moving is always there.
"With the scorching sun overhead and muddy trails underfoot, it took two or three hours of hiking to reach the destination. Recalling the experience of conducting research in a village in Togo, Li Guoming, as a representative of the third generation of "Artemisia annua", still remembers it deeply. At that time, when the team members were making preparations, they were surprised to find that all the villagers were waiting for them at the village health station with the food they had cooked at home.
"It turned out that the village was remote and isolated, and there had been a shortage of doctors, and the villagers had not seen so many doctors for a long time. "At that moment, I was moved by the pure and longing eyes of the African people. ”
The test results showed that 80 per cent of children under the age of 5 in the village were infected with worms, with 83 out of 104 children carrying worms. "I am also touched by my insistence on coming to the village, and the more I take these few steps, the more children I can sav. ”
Successfully developed artemisinin compounds without fear of sacrifice, braved hardships, opened up new ideas for antimalaria, and put forward innovative strategies for source elimination and malaria control, and traveled thousands of miles to let the "Belt and Road" countries use Artemisia annua to fight malaria...... In the battle against malaria, which has no gunpowder, generation after generation of "Artemisia annua" people of Guangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine continue to struggle, determined to "fight to the death" with malaria to the end.
Members of the medical team trained local people in microscopy in Sao Tome and Principe.
As of January this year, Guangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine has established national traditional Chinese medicine centers in five malaria-endemic countries, and trained more than 10 professional anti-malaria teams for the local area, effectively ensuring the health of the people in the countries jointly built by the Belt and Road.
In the near future, Li Guoming will set foot on Comoros soil again to continue to consolidate the progress of malaria elimination in the country. "Eradicating malaria is our unswerving pursuit. ”
South+ reporter Wang Xiangbo
Correspondent: Meng Nan, Liao Xiaojian
【Author】 Wang Xiangbo
Guangdong health headlines