[My road to malaria control: an interview with Li Guoqiao]

In order to prevent and treat drug-resistant falciparum malaria, China began the task named "534" in 1967.Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine participated in this task, Li Guoqiao was one of the leaders.He and his team were sent to Hainan and Yunnan to prevent and cure falciparum malaria.Li risked his health to test clinical effect during the task. This made the therapy shift from acupuncture to antimalarial drugs, and researchers focus on the treatment of severe malaria and cerebral malaria. When he was working at Yunnan, he used oral artemisinin to treat patients with falciparum malaria and Cerebral malarial successfully. It is the first time proven that artemisinin could be used to cure malarial. After that Li and his team came back to Hainan, cooperated with other teams by using artemisinin to treat malarial. Li Guoqiao devoted himself to the international team work for the cure of artemisinin. From 1970s to 1990s, he once went to Cambodia and Vietnam to cure many local Cerebral malaria patients by using artemisinin.Also, he is the first person who invented "FEMSE" (Fast Elimination of Malaria by Source Eradication). He used this kind of method to help patients at Comoros, and achieved great objective. In order to benefit all people, Li Guoqiao is still exploring a new generation of artemisinin compounds that are more economical, and more convenient for patients.