Researchers claim malaria success

As Dateline's Nick Lazaredes reports in his story – The Last Bite? – the research team, led by Professor Song Jiangping, fly to the island of Moheli where they use the island's population as human guinea pigs.

Just months after the project started in late 2007, Moheli's infection rate was slashed from 22 per cent to less than two per cent.

"The Moheli project has been running for a year now and is problem free. The experience clearly tells us that malaria can be eradicated globally in a short period. No need to wait with so many lives and resources wasted. The key point is to take an active approach", says Professor Jiangping.

But despite these remarkable results against a disease which kills more than a million people a year, the World Health Organisation is keeping its distance from the Chinese project.

Lazaredes also meets Sir Richard Feachem, who is one of the world's leading figures in the struggle against malaria.

Last month he kicked off the Asia-Pacific Malaria Initiative in Brisbane, addressing some of the region's top experts. While the Chinese claims might excite the public imagination, western scientists remain unimpressed.
 
"Interesting. Anecdotes are interesting – they incite the curiosity – this sounds rather good, tell me more – is the reaction I think to these reports – but it falls short, it falls way short of a peer review journal scientific publication, and that’s really what we need now", he tells Lazaredes.

But while the Chinese team haven't officially published any results yet, they're still collecting data and trying to stamp out the final traces of malaria on Moheli.

"Because it was a new technique, many experts were doubtful when it was first introduced. To them, it would be impossible to eradicate malaria. They thought that could only be an illusion, a dream", Professor Jiangping tells Dateline.
 

Read the full transcript or watch the story here.