Fouad Mohadji, vice-president and minister of health for the Comoros Union, honored two Chinese scientists last week for their work in a collaboration to fight malaria in the chain of islands off the Atlantic coast of Africa.

Ambassador Mahmoud M. Aboud hosted a medal presentation at the embassy in Beijing last weekend for Dr Song Jianping, professor of tropical medicine at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. The delegation later flew to Guangzhou, where Mohadji presented another medal to Dr Li Guoqiao. The Comoros vice-president was in China for a ministerial-level international health conference.

Song said the usual treatment for malaria involved a drug regimen for patients with symptoms and aggressive mosquito control. But the medical team from Guangzhou has been developing a preventive approach since 2006. The malaria virus has to incubate in two stages to become viable, first in human plasma and then in mosquitoes.

"Humans are never going to win the battle against mosquitoes," Song says, noting that the insects had populated warm zones of Earth long before man. The Chinese team is using a form of artemesin to keep the pathogen from maturing in humans, so there is no disease for mosquitoes to spread.

So far, the Comoros officials say, malaria mortality has been eliminated on two of the islands, and the population of the largest island will begin receiving inoculations in September.

Danish Ambassador Friis Arne Petersen hosted a live jazz concert at the embassy with SYNK, featuring Frederik Bulow, Kristine Kier, Jakob Mouridsen and Nichlas Knudsen. Petersen says the jazz tradition runs deep in Denmark, thanks to many US performers who came to Copenhagen in the 1960s and '70s.

Australians residing and traveling in China who wish to vote in person in the Sept 7 election are strongly advised to visit Australian missions and vote prior to election day. To vote by mail, the ballot papers must be returned to Australian Electoral Commission before Sept 20.

The Australian embassy in Beijing and the Australian consulates-general in Shanghai and Guangzhou are offering voting services for Australian citizens. For more information, visit china.embassy.gov.au.

The US embassy opened the exhibition for the traveling quilt show The Sum of Many Parts at the Chinese Museum of Women and Children in Beijing. Minister-Counselor Thomas Hodges says the show reflected not only the diversity of the 25 artists but also the geographical diversity of US states. The collection began its China tour in Shanghai last fall and has since traveled to Kunming, Nanning, Dalian and Changsha before opening in the capital. Arts Midwest, the Minneapolis-based organizers of the show for the embassy, was represented by its president and CEO David J. Fraher and board chair Peter J. Capell. The quilt show will be presented at the State Historical Museum of Iowa in Des Moines after the Beijing exhibition ends on Sept 10.

Craig Robinson, head coach of the Oregon State University men's basketball team, talked hoops recently with a full house of young professionals, students and serious basketball fans at the US consulate in Shanghai. Robinson says college basketball delivers economic benefits, generates goodwill in the local community, and helps student athletes in their academic lives and future careers.

British Charge d'Affaires Andrew Key last week expressed his "deepest condolences to all those who have lost their lives in the areas affected by Typhoon Utor in Guangdong province and the floods across Northeast China". He added that the British government "stands ready to help in any way we can".

Send embassy news to michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 08/25/2013 page5)