[Challenges for maintaining achievements of malaria elimination in Jiangsu Province, China].

Objective: To analyze the situation of malaria elimination, identify the current main challenges and difficulties of maintaining the achievements of malaria elimination, and find out feasible solutions in Jiangsu Province.

Methods: Through randomized grouping, the subject discussion and questionnaires were conducted by malaria control staffs from centers for diseases control and prevention of 13 cities of Jiangsu Province and Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases. The basic characteristics of participants and the effect of the discussion were analyzed through questionnaires.

Results: Twenty-seven professional participants were randomly divided into 3 groups. Totally 27 questionnaires were released and 24 valid questionnaires were retrieved. Among the 24 participants, 79.1% (19/24) of them were with mid-level and senior professional titles, and 66.7% (16/24) of them had worked for more than 10 years. Before the group discussion, only 16.7% (4/24) of the participants were aware of the current main challenges and difficulties in Jiangsu Province. After the discussion, 87.5% (21/24) of them thought the discussion increased their understanding of the challenges and difficulties. Through the subject discussion, the expert group summarized the current challenges and difficulties as well as the solutions in malaria prevention in Jiangsu Province in 4 aspects, namely the management guarantee of prevention work, diagnosis and treatment of the cases, field epidemiological investigation and others. Finally, a framework about these discussion results was established.

Conclusions: During the post-stage of malaria elimination, Jiangsu Province still faced many challenges and difficulties, such as management guarantee, case diagnosis and treatment, epidemiology survey and focus disposals, and malaria surveillance sustainability. The feasible solutions of these challenges may provide examples for other provinces and regions which are undergoing malaria elimination or in post-stage of malaria elimination.