Building a Shared Future: Artemisinin helps contain spread of malaria in Sudan

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03:05

A Chinese pharmaceutical company has been fighting malaria in Sudan with artemisinin for the past two decades. CGTN's Meng Qingsheng visited a hospital in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, to see how the medicine is making a difference.

At Al Ban Jadeed Teaching Hospital in Khartoum, patients are waiting to get treated. 25-year-old Mona Abdulla contracted malaria two weeks ago and suffers from headaches, fatigue and vomiting. She is receiving treatment.

MONA ABDULLA MALARIA PATIENT "It's been affecting my life. In the coming days, I have to take law school exams. With the headaches, I cannot study well. I can't go to work, and I can't take care of my child."

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. Left untreated, people may develop severe complications and die. Mona is lucky, her life is no longer in danger.

MENG QINGSHENG KHARTOUM, SUDAN "Malaria is a major public health problem in Sudan. In 2017, it killed more than three thousand people across the country. The Sudanese health authorities estimate that 15 percent of the population is infected with the malaria parasite. But of that group, 80 percent are treated at home, while only five percent go to health facilities."

The infectious disease requires medicines that are both effective and economical. Shanghai-Sudan Pharmaceutical Company was founded in 1998 to help contain a malaria epidemic in Sudan. Since then, it has produced 40 million doses of anti-malaria medicine, using artemisinin, which was discovered by Chinese scientists.

YAN JUN, GENERAL MANAGER SHANGHAI-SUDAN PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD "It's worldwide known that artemisinin-based malaria treatment medicine originated from China. We are very lucky as representative of China to produce and market this product. We have reduced by 75 percent of the price, people can get affordable medicine for the diseases."

Comether is the newest brand developed by the company to cope with drug resistance of malaria parasites. The product has been widely used at local hospitals.

HALAH AHMED, DOCTOR AL-BAN JADEED TEACHING HOSPITAL "The patient from the first dose of Comether, they improve very well. And they came back with negative result for malaria. There are not many people complained about the side effect of Comether. They took it very well, and improved very well after they took the medicine."

The World Health Organization has warned that no alternatives to artemisinin are likely to become available for several years. In the meantime, pharmaceutical companies are working quickly to find solutions to contain the spread of malaria. Meng Qingsheng, CGTN, Khartoum, Sudan.