“Your child is now in the best hospital in China, we have the best specialists and the best drugs for treating malaria. Please give me 48 hours, we promise to save little WES!” In the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of the People's Hospital in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, Gao Qi, head of Jiangsu Parasitic Disease Prevention Research Institute, told little WES’s parents unswervingly, who were already in despair. The devastated parents seemed to see the hope from the steady eye of Mr Gao.

On April 24, 2011, a “special” young patient was taken into the pediatric emergency room of Wuxi People's Hospital, WES GATSHA, two-year-old boy from Mozambique. Because of the language barrier, the worried parents took a long time to make clear of their child’s condition by acting out: WES, along with the mother, came to visit the father who was working in a foreign company in Wuxi ten days ago, and had a fever and nausea once arrived in Wuxi. The parents didn’t pay much attention at first and thought WES was just unacclimatized or had the common cold. But the situation got worse and worse, and the body temperature was as high as 38.3℃, and WES became unconscious, then the parents began to realize the serious situation and sent WES hurriedly into the hospital, at that moment, the child had been in a coma and showed sepsis symptoms. The hospital had rarely meet such cases with unknown etiology but greatly worsened in a few days, so little WES’ condition aroused great attention of the leaders of the People's Hospital, who required the hospital to do everything possible to treat WES. In view of WES’ experience of living in Mozambique with the mother, the hospital immediately contacted Jiangsu Parasitic Disease Prevention Research Institute and experts of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention for consultation, and finally confirmed after the examination that the child had the severe cerebral malaria caused by plasmodium falciparum, and with severe complications.

The diagnostic result was just like a bolt from the blue to WES’ parents. The mother from malaria epidemic area knew too much about the harm of severe malaria, which is the number one killer of African children, and one child dies of it every 38 seconds, in Africa where the medical conditions is undeveloped, once a child has such disease, it is basically equal to be sentenced to death. The sad and desperate mother had to give up treatment, and hoped that the hospital could agree to move the child out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and let her pray for her child and accompany the child for the last night. After hearing what Mr Gao had said, the parents had hope again.

After the physical examination to WES, Mr Gao prescribed treatment at once: Artesun Intravenous injection, one time every six hours; at the same time, it should be supplemented with hemodialysis treatment DIC and other adjuvant therapy which maintained vital sign. The progress of the disease was closely monitored, and after 24 hours of using the first Artesun, miracle happened that the high fever of WES began to come down, various vital signs also started to improve. Three days later, on April 28, WES began to restore sane, and the body temperature returned to normal. One day later, WES completely recovered consciousness, and was taken into the pediatric general ward, and successfully discharged from hospital on May 8. On that very day, little WES, along with the mother, said goodbye to all the departments which had participated in the rescue, and thanked the Chinese doctors for creating life miracles. Looking at the lively and lovely little WES, everyone had unspeakable joy.

Postscript

Little WES' story is just one case of all the treatments of imported patients with falciparum by using Artesun by Jiangsu Parasitic Disease Prevention Research Institute, which is manufactured by Guilin Pharma.

According to incomplete statistics, the cases of the imported falciparum malaria in China this year has been more than 1000, of which, more than 30 patients died because of the delayed treatment time, and the mortality rate is as high as 2%, much higher than that caused by SARS in 2003. After years of exploration, Jiangsu Parasitic Disease Prevention Research Institute has summarized a complete severe malaria rescue plan based on Artesun, and has promoted its use in the national disease control system, in the rescue plan, the Centers for Disease Control at all levels are required to store Artesun at least enough for two patients, used for rescuing patients with severe malaria.

Falciparum malaria without timely treatment will develop rapidly and then become severe malaria, and cause complications such as coma, acute pulmonary edema or renal failure, the mortality rate is very high. Malaria is not only the disease with the world's highest rates of mortality rate, but also a serious threat to our staff's safety sent to Africa and other malaria endemic areas. According to 《Global Malaria Situation Report》released by the world Health Organization (WHO), malaria causes the death of 1 million people around the world every year, of which, 90% are Africa children under age 5.

In response to the initiative of reducing the mortality rate of malaria in《Millennium Development Goals》proposed by UN, global malaria experts have been looking for specific drugs treating severe malaria. At present, the Artesun-Plus drugs self-developed by our country are the most effective antimalarials, which have become the first-choice treatment of falciparum malaria in the global malaria epidemic areas. But various oral dosage forms have had little effective to patients with severe malaria, Artesun owns particular advantage in rescuing patients with severe malaria by its quick efficacy and strong safety. In November, 2010, Artesun manufactured by Guilin Pharma Co., Ltd. passed the World Health Organization Prequalification, and Guilin Pharma Co., Ltd. became the first and also the only one that manufactured Artesun drugs in compliance with the international quality standards. In April, 2011, WHO adopted Artesun originated from China in its《Malaria Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines》as the first choice of treatment of severe malaria, and declared that If the Artesun can be widely used in Africa, it will save more than 200,000 African children's life each year.

In the anti-malaria project assisting to the Africa being implemented by the Ministry of Commerce in China in 2011, 1 million Artesun manufactured by Guilin Pharma Co., Ltd.  was donated to save African children's lives.