(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-26 11:12

HEFEI -- East China's Anhui Province has kicked off a campaign to clear out source of infection to curb the spread of malaria after reporting about 10,000 cases in June and July, provincial health authorities said.

The campaign, which lasts from August to October, covers all villages in the province reporting malaria cases since 2006, according to the provincial health department.

As part of the first-phase efforts, around 1.4 million people living along the Huaihe River, a major river traversing Anhui, have taken preventative medicines against the disease, the department said.

Since the campaign was launched in early August, key areas threatened by malaria have seen a drastic decline in reported malaria cases in the past two weeks, it said.

The department said it had urged all township-level health authorities to train village doctors and organize teams to send medicine to people affected or threatened by the disease.

Anhui reports thousands of malaria cases each year.

The province reported 2,948 malaria cases in June and  6,564 in July this year, according to the department.