PSI/China staff distribute brochures
and discusses malaria with a group
of ethnic minority women at a market
in Honghe Prefecture, a malaria-endemic
area across the border from Vietnam.
YUXI, China — Yuxi is a prefecture of two million people in Yunnan Province, situated at the source of the Honghe River Valley, with pockets of concentrated high malaria prevalence. In 2006, PSI launched a project to curb malaria incidence in Yuxi and two other prefectures in Yunnan through social marketing of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) and targeted malaria-prevention health education.
As part of this Global Fund project, PSI/China has paid particular attention to building the capacity of local health professionals. Since 2006, PSI has conducted 21 trainings on social marketing, LLINs and malaria-prevention strategies to more than 700 local health workers and officials.
On March 19, PSI/China’s malaria program and the Yuxi Center for Disease Control co-sponsored a training session for 98 health professionals from the CDC, as well as county and village level doctors. The training focused on social marketing approaches to malaria prevention, introduction to bednets, and shared successes and challenges of field implementation in Yuxi, Xishuangbanna and Honghe prefectures. The Yuxi City CDC has signed contracts with PSI/China in two malaria-endemic counties that will integrate PSI’s social marketing and education plan into their own malaria-prevention strategy.
During the training, Dr. Lee Liujiu, deputy director of the Yuxi CDC, said, “In 2008, social marketing of LLINs in Yuanyang and Xingping counties (of Yuxi City) was a great success. In order to better use this new technologically advanced product to fight against malaria, I recommend broadening the promotion of LLINs in all of Yuxis counties in 2009.”
Also, as a result of the training, 40 of the CDC and village doctors have already signed up to become PSI’s new retailers and many more are expected to follow. Yunnan, which borders Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, has the second highest malaria prevalence in China, with an incidence rate 20-40 times greater than the rest of the country.
Engaging local health officials including the CDCs, township hospitals and village doctors has proven to be a successful strategy in the effective implementation and sustainable impact of the program.