The number of people diagnosed with malaria in Shanghai dropped last year but the proportion of cases contracted in tropical areas of Africa and Asia is increasing, Shanghai Health Bureau officials warned ahead of National Malaria Day which falls on Saturday.

There were only three such cases in 2006, accounting for 1.86 percent of the 161 Shanghai malaria cases that year. But the figure climbed to 22 in 2007, 12.2 percent of the city's 179 cases.

In 2008, again 22 patients were infected with malaria abroad, accounting for 19.2 percent of 114 cases.

"The malaria situation has started to become serious again in some provinces because of the increased floating population and because more people now go abroad," said Zhou Xiaowei from the Shanghai Health Bureau.

(Shanghai Daily April 24, 2009)