Over 2,500 malaria sufferers in Tanzania will get free drugs and mosquito nets donated Tuesday by China, the world's leading anti-malaria drug producer. 

Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Yu Qingtai on Tuesday handed over 2,500 dosages of artemisinin malaria drugs and 100 mosquito nets, totally worth about 13,000 US dollars, to Anna Mkapa, chairperson of The Equal Opportunities for all Trust Fund and also the first lady of Tanzania.

The first lady rendered her thanks to the Chinese government and the Beijing-based Holley-Cotec Pharm Ltd, who is the manufacturer as well as the donator of the artemisinin drugs, saying that this beneficence would save many human lives in Tanzania, especially  those children. 

The artemisinin drugs, whose active ingredient extracted from the herb known as the southern wood and produced mainly in China, have been recognized by the World Health Organization as the safest and best existing treatment against malaria and have been available in Africa for more than ten years.

The Chinese ambassador said that the Chinese government would share with Tanzania its anti-malaria expertise and continue giving financial support for the ongoing anti-malaria war in the east African country.

Gong Wu, director manager of Holley Pharm Tanzania Ltd, said that the company would try to cut costs to reduce the retail prices for the benefit of victims of the disease and continue providing dosages free of charge to people in need. 

Tanzania, where an estimated 100,000 people die of malaria each year, is one of the world's least developed countries with most of its rural people living under one dollar a day. To those people, even a mosquito net or a dosage of drugs seems a luxury.