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The eradication of malaria in the world’s most populous nation offers lessons in how innovative treatments and aggressive tracking can keep the disease in check.

 

The World Health Organization declared China free of malaria on Wednesday after a seven-decade campaign against the disease, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the country.

 

The achievement is a major milestone for the world’s most populous nation — China is the first country in the W.H.O. Western Pacific region to be awarded a malaria-free certification in more than three decades. The only other countries in the region that have eradicated malaria are Australia, Brunei and Singapore, according to the global health agency.

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