Editor's note: Stephen Ndegwa is a Nairobi-based communication expert, lecturer-scholar at the United States International University-Africa, author and international affairs columnist. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

That there is an effective drug that can help in the complete eradication of malaria in areas where the disease is endemic is good news. More profound is the fact that artemisinin, the first special antimalarial drug discovered and successfully extracted in China, has been in use for about 50 years.

The International Forum on the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of Artemisinin and on Building a Global Community of Health for All, which opened on April 25 in Beijing has attracted a lot of interest from malaria-prone areas and the global health sector as a whole. While Chinese President Xi Jinping observed that artemisinin had contributed immensely in the fight against malaria in developing countries, the drug can do wonders if fully embraced and mainstreamed.

The drug artemisinin comprises extracts of sweet wormwood, scientific name "Artemisia annua," a Chinese herb used as traditional medicine in the treatment of highly drug-resistant strains of malaria, including several other parasitic diseases. It was discovered by Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist Tu Youyou in 1972.

From her discovery, she is credited with saving millions of lives in the developing world. Tu won the 2015 Nobel Prize for her exemplary work in medicine. She was the first Chinese to win a Nobel prize in medicine, and the first Chinese woman to win the Nobel Prize. It is also noteworthy that Tu was exclusively educated in China, proving that no one country or region has any monopoly to solutions that can solve global problems. 

While drugs like artemisinin have achieved a lot, malaria is still ravaging many developing countries particularly in the tropics, while it was wiped out decades ago after being prevalent in Western Europe and the United States. This implies that malaria is a plague of poor countries who can hardly afford the necessary quantities of Western medicines in the market due to straitened health budgets.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2018 there were an estimated 228 million malaria cases across the globe, with 405,000 deaths. 94 percent of these cases occurred in the Africa region, mostly affecting children under five years.

Sadly, many health interventions in developing countries are still Western-led by donors and Big Pharma. A shift in the status quo to incorporate drugs like artemisinin fully in the global healthcare system could go a long way in dealing comprehensively with the high incidence of disease.

Apart from artemisinin, traditional Chinese medicine's (TCM) efficacy is proven in treating many diseases. TCM has evolved over millennia, which makes the time right for the products to move into hospitals and health facilities in general. Due to ethical reasons, Chinese herbal products and other "alternative medicines" have not been marketed as aggressively as the Western made pharmaceuticals.

To makers of Chinese remedies, medicines are not a commercial enterprise in the magnitude and gross extent it has been turned into. It is not right to disadvantage certain demographics in the enjoyment of good health purely on account of cost. Where the latter cannot be reduced to suit the needy, effective but cheaper remedies should be used.

Artemisinin represents the universality of the Chinese approach to a healthy society. Indeed, it is a fact that has been proven yet again in the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the coronavirus was discovered early 2020, China has not held back its support including knowledge, medical equipment, drugs and ultimately vaccines. The country’s top leadership has occasionally mobilized the global community in discussing ways of tackling the pandemic. 

The role of TCM in managing COVID-19 has also been underscored. On Tuesday, top Chinese epidemiologist Zhang Boli noted that TCM "has proven effective in reducing the rate of asymptomatic and mild cases turning critical and in cutting treatment time."

Building a global community of health for all requires putting people first – before profit. China has done this with artemisinin without the hype. According to the WHO, about 240 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have benefited from artemisinin-based combination therapies.The country has fed the anti-malaria ecosystem with, among other interventions, billions of doses of artemisinin medicines, training of thousands of medical personnel and, construction of prevention and treatment centers.

China's half-century fight against malaria and the recent anti-COVID-19 pandemic strategies shows that it is willing and ready to apply its experience in partnerships that can help to alleviate the suffering of millions of people in developing countries, particularly vulnerable children and women whose health is more vulnerable to serious health risk factors.

For a global community of health for all to be a reality, there must be trust among all countries. Distrust cannot release the necessary synergy for cooperation in research and development of medicines and other health solutions in general.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries on CGTN Opinion section.)