GENEVA - China is on the verge of eliminating malaria, a senior health official has told a side-gathering during the World Health Assembly, at which Beijing was praised for its efforts in helping other countries fight the lethal disease.

Cui Li, vice-minister of China's National Health Commission, on Tuesday addressed an event titled "Country-led and country-owned efforts on malaria elimination to achieving universal health coverage" in Geneva during the forum.

"In 2017, for the first time, zero indigenous cases were reported in China, thus the efforts have had a significant impact on the country's elimination road map," Cui said at the annual event, which was co-sponsored by China.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked China for its sponsorship role along with Myanmar and Sri Lanka and praised China for what is doing to fund the fight against malaria.

Tedros said that since the year 2000, good progress had been made, but "we are at the crossroads", while noting that the fight against malaria needs to be sustained.

"We have more than 200 million cases of malaria a year and more than 90 percent of them are in Africa, so the focus on Africa is important," said Tedros, an Ethiopian who had specialized in malaria before taking the helm of the WHO last year.

Chinese officials explained that to fulfill and assess the elimination process and achieve the goal of certification by the WHO, the country has adopted county, prefecture and subnational verification since 2012.

Cui said that the Ministry of Health jointly with 12 ministries issued its National Malaria Elimination Action Plan 2010-2020 in June 2010, to kick off the country's campaign to eradicate the disease.

She said the overall goals of the campaign were set to achieve complete elimination in the country by 2020.

Also on Tuesday, health officials from China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao, Thailand and Vietnam, along with WHO representatives, signed the Ministerial Call for Action to Eliminate Malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion before 2030.

The document was originally drawn up in Nay Pyi Taw on Dec 8, affirming a "One Region, One Strategy" as its guiding principle for malaria elimination.

It commits the national governments to adequate domestic budgetary allocations for malaria elimination efforts from 2015-30.

The call for action seeks to explore innovative financing mechanisms that tap diverse resources, that may include the business sector (corporate social responsibility), taxation of tobacco and alcohol and special levies on tourism, for example.

The document pledges its signatories to work together with relevant entities to develop and implement cross-border elimination strategies and action plans that concretely address malaria-related needs.

These include challenges for the populations at risk of malaria in border and cross-border areas.

Xinhua