The Zanzibar Islands in Tanzania have concluded the archipelago’s annual performance evaluation for malaria elimination.
For the first time, the Chinese expertise has been featured to assist the Unguja and Pemba Islands in refining their disease prevention and control strategies.
The meeting to that effect, was held from the 2nd to the 7th of February 2026 and was focused on assessing achievements in malaria elimination in the previous year 2025.
Delegates also started formulating the 2026 work plan, and identifying priority areas for the next round of Global Fund malaria grant applications.
Addressing Zanzibar’s practical needs, Liu Yaobao, a public health expert from the 35th Chinese medical team in the Islands, introduced China’s successful strategies, including establishing multi-sector collaboration mechanisms, strengthening surveillance and rapid response systems, enhancing grassroots prevention and control capacity, as well as expanding health education.
Liu Yaobao is the first public health expert sent with the Chinese medical team to Zanzibar.
Since his arrival in September 2025, Liu has worked closely with local health authorities, conducting assessments and establishing effective cooperation mechanisms.
On his part, Shija Joseph Shija, the director of the Malaria Elimination Program in Zanzibar pointed out that China achieved nationwide malaria elimination in 2021, while Zanzibar is steadily advancing toward its 2030 disease elimination goal.
According to Shija, the Zanzibar Islands were very keen to borrow a leaf from China’s experience to further accelerate the malaria eradication progress.
For the past decades, Zanzibar has made major progress malaria control. Through use of bed nets, indoor spraying, and strong surveillance systems.
A previous new study led by the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), in collaboration with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), Tulane University, and the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme (ZAMEP), revealed that malaria infections are still being transmitted locally on the Island.
The study found that malaria is no longer a disease primarily affecting young children. Instead, older children and young adults now carry the greatest burden. Children aged 5 to 15 years were three and a half times more likely to be infected than adults over 25 while those aged 16 to 25 also faced higher odds of infection.