title: China's 1-3-7 surveillance and response strategy for malaria elimination: Is case reporting, investigation and foci response happening according to plan?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The China's 1-3-7 strategy was initiated and extensively adopted in different types of counties (geographic regions) for reporting of malaria cases within 1 day, their confirmation and investigation within 3 days, and the appropriate public health response to prevent further transmission within 7 days. Assessing the level of compliance to the 1-3-7 strategy at the county level is a first step towards determining whether the surveillance and response strategy is happening according to plan. This study assessed if the time-bound targets of the 1-3-7 strategy were being sustained over time. Such information would be useful to improve implementation of the 1-3-7 strategy in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study involved country-wide programmatic data for the period January 1st 2013 to June 30th 2014. Data variables were extracted from the national malaria information system and included socio-demographic information, type of county, date of diagnosis, date of reporting, date of case investigation, case classification (indigenous, or imported, or unknown), focus investigation, date of reactive case detection (RACD), and date of indoor residual spraying (IRS). Summary statistics and proportions were used and comparisons between groups were assessed using the chi-square test. Level of significance was set at a P-value ≤ 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of a total of 5,688 malaria cases from 731 counties, there were 55 (1 %) indigenous cases (only in Type 1 and Type 2 counties) and 5,633 (99 %) imported cases from all types of counties. There was no delay in reporting malaria cases by type of county. In terms of case investigation, 97.5 % cases were investigated within 3 days with the proportion of delays (1.5 %) in type 2 counties, being significantly lower than type 1 counties (4.1 %). Regarding active foci, 96.4 % were treated by RACD and/or IRS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The performance of 1-3-7 strategy was encouraging but identified some challenges that if addressed can further improve implementation.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH; WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropic Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, 207 Rui Jin Er Road, Shanghai,, 200025, People's Republic of China. zss163@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Shui-Sen
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH; WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropic Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, 207 Rui Jin Er Road, Shanghai,, 200025, People's Republic of China. shaosen413@163.com.
authors.forename: Shao-Sen
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH; WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropic Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, 207 Rui Jin Er Road, Shanghai,, 200025, People's Republic of China. zhangli7481@163.com.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Global Malaria Programme, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211, Geneva, 27, Switzerland. rietvelda@who.int.
authors.forename: Aafje E C
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Rietveld
authors.affiliation: Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), 20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211, Geneva, 27, Switzerland. ramsaya@who.int.
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ramsay
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontieres, Brussels Operational Centre, Luxembourg, Luxembourg. rony.zachariah@brussels.msf.org.
authors.forename: Rony
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zachariah
authors.affiliation: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris, France. kbissell@theunion.org.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bissell
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontieres, Brussels Operational Centre, Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Rafael.VAN.DEN.BERGH@brussels.msf.org.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Van den Bergh
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH; WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropic Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, 207 Rui Jin Er Road, Shanghai,, 200025, People's Republic of China. nipdxzhg@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhi-Gui
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention; Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH; WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropic Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, 207 Rui Jin Er Road, Shanghai,, 200025, People's Republic of China. zhouxn1@chinacdc.cn.
authors.forename: Xiao-Nong
authors.initials: XN
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Global Malaria Programme, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211, Geneva, 27, Switzerland. cibulskisr@who.int.
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Cibulskis
mesh_terms: D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018563:Disease Notification / Q000379:methods*; D062306:Geography, Medical; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012424:Rural Population; D013997:Time Factors