African countries praised artemisinin for saving millions of African lives.

Artemisinin, the "Chinese magic medicine", has saved the lives of millions of Africans and alleviated the suffering of hundreds of millions of patients. The news that Tu Youyou, a scientist from China who discovered artemisinin, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has added a new topic to the Second Ministerial Conference on Health Cooperation and Development between China and Africa, which is being held in Cape Town. Health ministers or representatives from African countries congratulated the delegation of China.

Li Bin, director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, said in an interview with this reporter on 10/0/6/0: "I personally feel that African people attach great importance to the award of China scientists, which is very valuable in their hearts. The significance of Tu Youyou winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine lies not only in the great scientific value of his new malaria therapy, but also in its greater life value. "

Malaria is an old enemy that threatens human life. Before the advent and popularization of artemisinin, about 400 million people were infected with malaria every year in the world, and at least 1 10,000 people died of the disease. But now, artemisinin-based combination therapy has become the standard antimalarial therapy recommended by the World Health Organization. WHO believes that China, as the discoverer of antimalarial drug artemisinin and the largest producer, has played an important role in the global fight against malaria. Especially in Africa, the hardest hit area of malaria, artemisinin has saved millions of lives. According to WHO statistics, since 2000, about 240 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have benefited from artemisinin combination therapy, and about 654.38 million+500,000 people have avoided the death caused by malaria.

Since Comoros, with a population of over 800,000, began to implement the "Rapid Malaria Eradication Project with Artemisinin Compound" with the help of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine in China in 2007, the number of malaria infection cases has dropped from over/kloc-0.08 million in 2006 to 2 154. Fuad Muhaji, Vice President and Minister of Health of Comoros, praised the great success of our reporter's malaria eradication projects in Colombia and China. He said it was a blessing for all our families. In the past, every family in Comoros often had people hospitalized for malaria, and the hospitalization rate was as high as 42%. Last year, the number of people hospitalized for malaria in Comoros dropped to zero, and there were no more deaths. This is not only in the field of health, but also in the field of social and economic development.

Moetti, Director of the African Region of the World Health Organization, said: "The discovery of artemisinin has benefited Africa a lot, and related drugs have been warmly welcomed. It has made great progress in malaria control in Africa and made great contributions to reducing the mortality rate of African people, especially children and pregnant women. "

Moeti also recalled to our reporter her experience of suffering from malaria and taking artemisinin: Seven years ago, I was infected with malaria for the first time in Congo (Brazzaville), and the doctor gave artemisinin at that time. Three days later, I slowly recovered and returned to work. Since then, I have taken artemisinin with me when traveling to other African countries.

Iria, a representative of Tanzania's Ministry of Health, told reporters that Tanzania is also a country with severe malaria, and he has suffered from malaria many times. Artemisinin is the most commonly used drug to fight malaria in Tanzania at present, and its effect is very good, so it is called "Chinese medicine" by patients.

In an interview with this reporter, Sierra Leonean Health Minister Fofana expressed heartfelt congratulations to Tu Youyou for winning the prize. He said that Africa, as a continent with high incidence of malaria in the world, thanks scientists from China and China for their contributions.

Wang Yaoping, the captain of the 16th Sierra Leonean medical team in China, recalled a story two years ago: on June 7th, 2003, a local malaria and typhoid infected person was unconscious. Yang Zhongyi, a doctor of the medical team, saw the situation and immediately gave emergency treatment such as high-dose intravenous artesunate. It was because of timely rescue and proper treatment that the patient recovered and was discharged five days later. After the patient recovered, he came to the hospital with his mother's costume to thank Dr. China.

Zhang Shunying, the captain of China's first16th batch of medical teams assisting Congo (DRC), told this reporter that local patients preferred artemisinin because of its good efficacy, low toxicity and small side effects, while antimalarial drugs such as quinine were highly toxic and had great side effects.

At the beginning of the book China and Africa by Senegalese journalist Adama Gaye, he linked the discovery of artemisinin with Africa and thought that "Africa should remember this discovery". According to this book, a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds on the African continent, and China has been using artemisinin herbs to treat malaria for more than 2,000 years. No antimalarial drug has such great hope as artemisinin, which is one of the many achievements of traditional medicine in China. (Cape Town, Johannesburg, 65438+1October 6 Japanese newspaper reporter in South Africa, Jiang Anitao, Li Zhiwei)