Feature Story

December 2011

Blogging on malaria and elimination

Professor Bill Brieger of the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins University and frequent blogger on malaria elimination has reported extensively on recent malaria meetings from around the world. From Thailand, Bill reported on the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN) community engagement for malaria elimination workshop which reviewed lessons from 60 years of community participation in disease control and elimination. More recently, Professor Brieger blogged from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene annual meeting in Philadelphia and highlighted sessions on malaria elimination including a presentation on South Africa’s work towards strengthening their malaria information systems.

November 2011

Malaria Day in the Americas

A celebration of the fifth annual Malaria Day in the Americas was recently held at the headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and honored several malaria programs in the region for their successful efforts to reduce deaths and illness from malaria. Launched in 2007, Malaria Day in the Americas seeks to raise awareness, build commitment and mobilize action to advance malaria goals and targets as the region works towards elimination. In the last 10 years, the number of cases in the region has declined 52 percent, and the number of deaths has declined 68 percent. With this progress and with continued efforts to reach all at-risk populations, countries will be able to continue to shrink the regional malaria map.

October 2011

Malaria in Africa Can be Eliminated

A recent publication by MEG members Kent Campbell and Rick Steketee in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene argues that through the use of today’s interventions and augmented in the future with newer tools such as vaccines, malaria in Africa can be eliminated. Dramatic success over the past decade has been achieved through the scale up of interventions such as bed nets, indoor residual spraying, diagnostics and effective antimalarial medicines. Malaria elimination in Africa is feasible; however, sustained political and financial commitment is critical if the gains are to be maintained.

September 2011

Regional meeting on malaria elimination held in Central Asia

The Tajikistan Ministry of Health recently hosted a conference on the elimination of malaria with representatives and experts from other Central Asian countries. The conference aims were to analyze the region’s progress towards elimination and discuss further steps needed to achieve elimination by 2015, which was declared in 2005 through The Tashkent Declaration on Malaria Elimination. A resolution was agreed upon for: strengthened cross-border cooperation; timely exchange of information on malaria especially in border areas; and, for regular meetings on analyzing experiences on eliminating and preventing the reintroduction of malaria.

August 2011

Prospects for malaria elimination in non-Amazonian regions of Latin America

Latin America experiences nearly one million malaria cases annually, and has less than 10% of the entire global at-risk population. A number of factors contribute to continued transmission in this region such as rapid deforestation, drug and insecticide resistance, political instability and inadequate agricultural practices. To address these challenges, a new research center established for the non-Amazonian region of Latin America, Centro Latino Americano de Investigación en Malaria (CLAIM), will address major gaps in the understanding of changing malaria epidemiology. In close partnership with National Malaria Programs, the research conducted will be a basis for developing and implementing new strategies to accelerate progress towards elimination in the region.

July 2011

Malaria elimination: Staying the course on research and development

A new report by Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) and others titled, Staying the course? Malaria research and development in a time of economic uncertainty discusses funding for malaria research and development. The report states that investment in malaria research and development has more than quadrupled in the past 16 years to over $600 million in 2009, led primarily by two funders: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States National Institutes of Health. Malaria research funding goes into developing vaccines, drugs, vector control products and diagnostics, as well as basic research. However, the biggest challenge ahead is the need for sustained financing to maintain the gains achieved.

June 2011

Third annual Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network meeting

The third annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN) was held May 9-12, 2011 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The meeting celebrated the on-going efforts within the region to reduce the scourge of malaria, to share experiences on how countries are working towards elimination of malaria, and work collaboratively on projects in research, capacity building, and advocacy. In attendance were 80 representatives from the 11 Country Partners and research and partner institutions from the region, including the World Health Organization (WHO). Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vanuatu were represented as partner countries. Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal attended as meeting observers.

The meeting took place in the state of Sabah on the island of Borneo, where impressive progress is being made towards elimination. Malaysia has one of the world's oldest malaria control programmes, dating back to the pioneering work in Klang, Kuala Lumpur and Penang by Sir Malcolm Watson in 1901. In 1967 the nationwide eradication programme was almost successful in eliminating malaria from the country but transmission persisted in areas of deep forest in Sabah and Sarawak.

Read the APMEN III meeting media release >

May 2011

World Malaria Day 2011 – Achieving Progress and Impact

On April 25, 2011 the world celebrated the 4th annual World Malaria Day to commemorate the global effort toward effective control and elimination of malaria. This year’s World Malaria Day theme – Achieving Progress and Impact – highlighted the international community’s efforts towards achieving zero malaria deaths by 2015. Events were held around the world to showcase the progress achieved through massive scale-up campaigns, and to celebrate the overall success of countries in their fight against malaria.

Get more information World Malaria Day 2011 >

April 2011

Long-term plan drafted to rid Vietnam of malaria

The Vietnam Ministry of Health has drafted a 10-year national strategy to eliminate malaria in 40 provinces and cities by 2020 with the goal of eliminating malaria nationwide by 2030. The spatially-progressive strategy will include the early diagnosis and effective treatment of malaria cases, preventative measures such as indoor residual spraying and bed nets for those living in high-risk areas, as well as a national public awareness campaign on malaria prevention. Vietnam has recently achieved great progress in reducing its malaria burden, however challenges to eliminating malaria remain due to population migration in areas along the borders with highly-endemic countries such as Cambodia and Laos.

March 2011

Dispute on Thai-Cambodia border could aid spread of drug-resistant malaria

Ongoing border disputes and increased engagement of the military along the Thai-Cambodian border threatens to disrupt efforts to contain drug-resistant malaria. First detected in 2009, drug-resistant parasites take twice as long to be cleared from an infected person and there are worries that military troops along the Thai-Cambodian border could limit the malaria program’s access to the disputed area for timely surveillance and case management activities. Efforts such as the World Health Organization’s Global Containment Plan are currently underway to prevent these drug-resistant parasites from spreading to other endemic areas.

February 2011

Spatially-progressive elimination in the Philippines

Health officials in the northern province of Nueva Vizcaya have recently intensified efforts to control and eliminate malaria. Twenty-two out of 81 Philippine provinces (27%) are currently malaria free with the spatially-progressive elimination of malaria starting in the central Philippines and progressively moving outwards towards more hard-to-reach areas. As a malaria-eliminating country with nearly USD$70 million of support provided by the Global Fund for their malaria activities, the Philippines is making progress towards their goal of eliminating malaria by 2020.

January 2011

The cost of a malaria-free world

A recent news article in Reuters discusses the cost-effectiveness of attaining a malaria-free world, and evaluates whether it makes economic sense to work towards malaria elimination. Oliver Sabot, MEG member and lead author on The Lancet publication, Costs and Financial Feasibility of Malaria Elimination, has examined the costs and benefits of eliminating malaria and concludes that in areas where elimination has a low probability of cost savings, countries should instead focus on achieving controlled low-endemic malaria. As international donors and endemic countries invest in malaria control, the question of cost-effectiveness is critical in both high- and low-endemic settings.