One of the highlights of TDR’s 50-year history has been the seminal influence of TDR-supported research in lowering the global malaria burden. A recent sponsored symposium held alongside the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) brought together leading experts in malaria research to discuss the need for an integrated approach to reduce deaths from malaria. The event, jointly organized by TDR and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), marked the 50th and 25th anniversaries of these organizations, respectively.
“I’m very pleased we’ve joined up with our friends at MMV on its 25th birthday for this symposium, as among the many highlights of TDR’s history is the incubation of MMV at TDR,” said TDR Director John Reeder, who moderated the session. TDR also supported research that established the effectiveness of insecticide-treated nets as well as the trials that proved the effectiveness of artemisinin-based combination therapies and played a key role in the establishment of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria, which was designed to strengthen malaria research capacity in Africa.
A Trilogy of Tools
The symposium, titled "Malaria prevention: a trilogy of tools to accelerate to zero deaths," highlighted the importance of an integrated approach to maximize the impact of insecticides, expanded chemoprevention and the first generation of malaria vaccines to accelerate progress towards eliminating malaria.
“No single intervention is enough. But when combined, they offer a golden opportunity to accelerate to zero malaria deaths,” said George Jagoe, Executive Vice President of Access & Product Management at MMV. “In the access team at MMV, we definitely try and challenge ourselves by saying, don’t think in siloes of delivery.”
The symposium featured a series of five-minute TED-style lightning talks, which can be viewed here.
Integrating the array of prevention tools involves considering practical questions such as “how do the implementers not get overwhelmed…delivering one intervention after the other?” said Keziah Malm, Programme Manager at Ghana's National Malaria Elimination Programme. “You need to understand what each of the interventions has as a plus, and which aspect of the interventions can be added so that ultimately there is improved effectiveness and higher efficiencies in terms of time, human resources and finances.”
Implementation research also plays a critical role in ensuring effective delivery of the various tools and overcoming barriers and challenges specific to the local context, said Seydou Doumbia, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technology of Bamako in Mali, where he is leading a TDR-supported postgraduate training programme focused on implementation research.
Experiences around implementation of one tool, such as seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC), are likely to inform the implementation of other tools, such as the vaccines, given similar challenges, said Fatimata Bintou Sall, a research assistant at the University of Thies in Senegal. “It’s also important that lessons learned are shared across countries,” said Sall, who has been involved with the OPT-SMC (Optimizing SMC) project that brings together 13 national malaria programmes in Africa.
The symposium underscored the critical need for an integrated approach to malaria prevention and the importance of continued collaboration among researchers, implementers and national health programmes. Only through such an approach can the goal of reducing malaria deaths be achieved.