The 2015 Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou makes a speech on the discovery of artemisinin at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden on Monday. [Photo: CNTV]

The 2015 Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou has made a speech on the discovery of artemisinin, a new drug against malaria, at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Artemisinin, also known as QingHaoSu in Chinese, was discovered by Chinese scientist Tu Youyou.

She received the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for the drug's discovery by her team more than three decades ago.

In her speech at the Karolinska Institute, she introduced the discovery of the drug and their efforts to win recognition among the world.

She says the process was not easy.

"After my speech, you may feel this is just an ordinary story of drug discovery. However, discovering Artemisinin from Qinghao, a kind of Chinese medicine which has been used for more than 2,000 years, was full of hardships."

An estimated 214 million global cases of malaria have been reported so far, approximately 438,000 of which were fatal.

Tu says it remains a big challenge to the world's public health and calls for anti-malaria workers to pay attention to the drug resistance of artemisinin.

"Since the artemisinin resistance has been verified in Greater Mekong river basins, the potential threat of spreading is under investigation. More than 100 experts in the program believe that the possibility to curb or eliminate drug resistance is very limited before it spreads to the highly-infected areas. So curbing the drug resistance is urgent."

In her speech, Tu also called Chinese traditional medicine a treasure for medical workers to learn and explore.

"Through the research of the anti-malaria drug, QingHaoSu, I feel that Chinese and Western medicine both have their own advantages, and they are complementary. Combination of the two will boost greater prospects and potential for development."

Tu youyou is expected to attend this year's Nobel Prize award ceremony in Stockhom later this week.