Background: China has already achieved remarkable accomplishments in shrinking the malaria burden since the mid-20th Century. The country now plans to eliminate malaria by the year 2020. Looking at the dynamics of malaria outbreaks during the last decades might provide important information regarding the potential challenges of such an elimination strategy and might help to avoid mistakes of the past.
Methods: A systematic review of the published literature (English and Chinese) was conducted to identify malaria outbreaks during the period 1990 until 2013 in China. The main causes of outbreaks as described in these papers were categorized according to whether they were related to population migration, environmental factors, vector and host related factors, and operational problems of the health services.
Results: The review identified 36 malaria outbreaks over the 23-year study period, on which sufficient information was available. They mainly occurred in southern and central China involving 12 provinces/autonomous regions. More than half of all outbreaks (21/36, 58%) were attributed at least in part to population migration, with malaria importation to non- or low-endemic areas from high-endemic Chinese areas (13/15) or endemic countries (2/15) having been the most frequent reason (15/21, 71%). Other main causes were problems of the health services (15/36, 42%), in particular poor malaria case management (10/15, 67%), environmental factors (7/36, 19%), and vector and host related factors (5/36, 14%).
Conclusions: Beside a number of other challenges, addressing population movement causing malaria appears to be of particular importance to the national malaria programme. Strengthening of surveillance for malaria and early radical treatment of cases should thus be considered among the most important tools for preventing malaria outbreaks and for the final goal of malaria elimination in China.