This year, in the 28th "China Youth May Fourth Medal Collective", the only award-winning team in the medical field is the Artemisia annua antimalaria medical team of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. The team was established in 1989 and has helped more than 1 million people get rid of malaria.
Dr. Li Mingqiang, one of the members of the medical team, told the People's Daily health client reporter that most of the medical team members who are still assisting in Africa are post-90s, and the youngest team members are post-00s, who are Chinese young people who demonstrate the benevolence of doctors on the African continent. "In the eyes of Artemisia annua people, anti-malaria aid is a cause passed down from generation to generation, and the May Fourth spirit is the spirit of Artemisia annua with the responsibility of promoting human health. ”
The winner of the May Fourth Medal and the Artemisia annua antimalaria medical team of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine provided assistance abroad. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
They do not believe that the "China solution" can solve this "stubborn disease"
More than 200 foreign personnel have been dispatched by the Artemisia annua antimalarial medical team of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine to promote the "one medicine and one side" for the treatment of malaria (artemisinin piperaquine tablets and a new strategy of eliminating the source of malaria with the core of simultaneous elimination of the source of infection) for the treatment of malaria (the original combination of artemisinin piperaquine tablets and a new strategy of eliminating the source of infection as the core) to Comoros, Togo, Sao Tome and Principe and other countries.
Li Mingqiang was assigned to Sao Tome and Principe as the head of the anti-malaria team. "I was notified to go there in 2017, and I couldn't find any information about this country on the Internet. "He's been here for five years.
Li Mingqiang helps malaria patients in Africa. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Despite some psychological preparation, the actual situation of local malaria patients in Africa is even more serious than Li Mingqiang imagined. Due to limited local conditions, the medical records of all malaria patients are handwritten, some are damaged or lost, and the most recent data are still in 2012.
In order to grasp the overall situation of the patients, Li Mingqiang led the team to conduct door-to-door statistics. São Tomé and Príncipe is hot and humid all year round, and in order to avoid infection, they have to wear long clothes and trousers to work. The local traffic situation is also poor, only one main road can be opened to traffic, and the rest of the roads can only be walked. That year, Li Mingqiang and his team members traveled to more than 300 villages, wore four pairs of sports shoes, and counted 160,000 pieces of information. "When we arrived at a village with the local anti-malaria coordinator, he was surprised because many of them had never been there. ”
I grasped the local situation, but when it came to the treatment link, I encountered trouble again. Previously, international organizations such as the Global Fund and the World Health Organization (WHO) had also come to help, but the malaria situation in the area had not improved well. They do not believe that the "China solution" can solve this "stubborn disease". In order to convince the locals, Li Mingqiang's team first conducted a pilot project in the local "Freedom Village".
At that time, the "Liberty Village" was in the middle of a malaria outbreak, and every house was closed. Li Mingqiang and his team came to the village with medicine and told the villagers how to take it. "One of the reasons why malaria is prone to recurrence is that patients have poor medication compliance, and they do not take medicine before the malaria parasite in the body is completely killed. In the past, the treatment drugs needed to be taken for 5 consecutive days, but our program only needs to be taken for 2~3 days, which fundamentally solves the problem of compliance. ”
After three months of treatment, the villagers of the "Freedom Village" have not relapsed for eight consecutive months after recovery, and the Freedom Village, which has been confined by malaria for a long time, has finally achieved true freedom.
On the African continent, three generations of "Artemisia annua" have swayed their youth
Li Mingqiang is the third generation of "Artemisia annua", and this African continent has witnessed the relay of three generations of "Artemisia annua". In 1967, when Li Guoqiao had just turned 30 years old, he was the first-generation leader of the global antimalaria team of the Artemisia Center of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. He received the national "523 mission" and began to study the fever law of falciparum malaria in depth, and even wrote a suicide note "to try malaria".
Since 2006, Li Guoqiao's team has applied the holistic view of traditional Chinese medicine and the theory of syndrome differentiation and treatment to the field of artemisinin compound prevention and treatment of malaria, and formed a malaria prevention and control program with Chinese characteristics of "universal medication, mass prevention and treatment, and malaria eradication", which has helped Comoros achieve zero malaria deaths, reduce the annual incidence of malaria by 98%, and enter the pre-elimination stage from the stage of malaria control.
Song Jianping, a second-generation Artemisia annua, assists in Africa, courtesy of the interviewee.
Song Jianping, director of the Artemisia annua Center of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, is a representative of the second generation of "Artemisia annua". They have applied China's solutions to Belt and Road countries such as Comoros, Togo, Papua New Guinea, and Sao Tome and Principe. Among them, the number of malaria cases in Comoros has been reduced by more than 99%, zero malaria deaths have been achieved, the total parasite rate of the Papua New Guinea population has been reduced by 87.20%, and the demonstration village of Sao Tome and Principe has produced a synergistic effect on malaria control, which has effectively suppressed the spread of malaria.
Now that Song Jianping is about to enter the age of sixtieth year, he handed over the baton to his students, the third generation of "Artemisia annua", who continue to write the story of youth along the path of teachers. Three generations of Artemisia annua people have crossed the sea, and they have also left the fragrance of Artemisia grass on this African continent.