Novel coronavirus pneumonia and malaria epidemic are facing the double crisis of the continent. How can African countries take malaria prevention measures when the epidemic has put great pressure on public health systems?
 
According to CNBC television, Rwanda, located in central and eastern Africa, is at the forefront of this new type of anti malaria struggle. The government is using Chinese UAV technology to fight malaria and ensure the control effect, so as to promote the realization of the goal of eliminating malaria by 2030.


The first aerial battle against mosquitoes in history kicked off
 
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by Plasmodium, which can threaten the lives of patients. It is mainly transmitted through mosquito bites or the blood of people with Plasmodium. In 2018, 89 countries around the world reported about 228 million malaria cases and 400000 deaths, of which Africa accounted for more than 90% of the global malaria cases.
 
In this protracted war against malaria without gunsmoke, Chinese science and technology are everywhere to protect the African people suffering from malaria. Last August, the economic and Commercial Department of the Chinese Embassy in Rwanda announced on its official website that the Rwandan government would carry out a pilot drone mosquito control project as an innovative measure to strengthen the elimination of malaria. After six months of preparation, the project was officially launched on the occasion of the arrival of World Malaria Day on April 25. Rwanda has become one of the few African countries to use drones to fight malaria.
 
Since March this year, the Rwandan government has joined forces with international organizations such as the World Health Organization (who), the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RMB), the African leaders Alliance against malaria (ALMA) and the United States Agency for international development to launch a large-scale grass-roots campaign of "zero malaria starts from me" nationwide. The national anti malaria campaign is led by the Ministry of health of Rwanda and uses drones to carry out vector control in six malaria high-risk areas. On March 10, at the launching ceremony of the project held in the capital Kigali, a Chinese Jifei UAV loaded with 12 liters of medicine took off slowly under the attention of the public, firing the "first shot" of the anti mosquito war in Rwanda.
 
In this anti malaria operation, Jifei UAV was used to kill larvae in mosquito breeding sites such as swamps, jungles, ditches and road potholes, so as to reduce the risk of malaria infection due to mosquito bites by reducing the number of adult mosquitoes from the source. In the process of spraying, the UAV can fly to the top of the target area and automatically spray larvicide according to the route planned in advance. Technicians can adjust the flight height, spraying range, spraying flow and the size of liquid medicine atomized particles in real time according to the actual needs, so as to ensure that the medicine can accurately and evenly cover the mosquito breeding area. Different from the traditional mosquito control scheme, UAV aerial spraying abandons harmful chemical insecticides and adopts more efficient, safe and environment-friendly microbial larvicides.
 
The UAV used in the anti malaria operation was developed by Jifei science and Technology Institute of China Agricultural Science and technology company. At present, it has been widely used in the intelligent management of farmland in China. The popularity and broad application scenarios of UAV technology in China have brought good news to the people in malaria endemic areas in Africa. In an interview with CNBC, Dr. Daniel ngamije, Minister of health of Rwanda, said that the use of drones for larval killing is strongly complementary to existing measures - drug impregnated mosquito nets for adult mosquitoes and indoor residual spraying. "Mosquito breeding ground is the main battlefield of this anti malaria operation. We need to kill mosquitoes in the larval stage so that they will not grow into adults and infect more people."
 
Chinas new technology supports malaria control in Africa
 
In 2018, more than 3.7 million people in Rwanda were infected with malaria, and the national population continued to live in the shadow of malaria. In recent years, although Rwanda has made positive progress in malaria control, the rapid expansion of rice planting area has brought severe challenges to the anti malaria work in rural areas. Paddy field is an ideal environment for mosquito breeding. A large number of farmers are infected with malaria due to long-time work in the field. The traditional artificial spraying method needs a lot of human, financial and material resources, and will cause trampling damage to crops, which is difficult to implement in a large area.
 
In the "zero malaria starts from me" operation, Chinas UAV technology provided the countrys experts and technicians with a new plan for mosquito control. Dr. ngamije believes that "UAVs can not only save time and human resources, but also avoid re spraying and leakage caused by human errors and reduce the dosage of pharmaceutical products." One operator can use UAV to kill mosquitoes in large farmland swamps instead of 100 manual labor.
 
Today, malaria is still a "super killer" threatening the lives and health of African people. In 2017, China achieved no local infection case report for the first time, and its malaria prevention and control work model has been incorporated into the technical documents of the World Health Organization (who). Facing the public health crisis on the other side of the earth, China has always supported malaria eradication in Africa. In addition to the drone mosquito control program, China has set up local malaria control centers in Africa, sent medical experts and carried out training in new diagnostic and control technologies. China Africa friendship has been strengthened for a long time. China has always stood firmly with Africa and made sustained efforts to jointly solve the problem of malaria and ensure human health and security.