Speeches by Dr Neena Valecha (VxWG), Prof Xiao-Nong Zhou (SRWG), and the Deputy Director of Infectious Diseases, Disease Control Division, Malaysia kicked off the 2024 Joint Annual Meeting. Joint meeting sessions covered a range of topics critical to malaria elimination, including innovative diagnostic tools and surveillance methods, strategies for near-elimination settings, and cross-border collaboration. Sessions also emphasised strengthening health systems using geo-enabling health information systems, capacity building, and community-based initiatives to drive sustainable impact.
Interactive workshops prioritized development of new tools for case management, surveillance and response. Group discussions focused on improving case management and opportunities to integrate climate data into malaria programmes. Findings from these sessions will be disseminated in a series of published meeting reports.
MORU's leadership in malaria research and technical support was repeatedly showcased throughout. Dr Cindy Chu shared updates from the Southeast Asia Dose Optimization of Tafenoquine (SEADOT) study, Dr Chanaki Amaratunga (top left photo) discussed drug combinations for Plasmodium falciparum, and Prof Lorenz von Seidlein presented on malaria vaccine potential in the Asia Pacific. Dr Steeve Ebener highlighted the Health GeoLab’s work on geo-enabling health information systems to support health system strengthening. MORU has just been renewed to host SRWG until 2026, with Prof Richard Maude (middle in bottom right photo, with VxWG Technical Co-Chair Dr Caroline Lynch on the right) as the technical Co-Chair, and will continue serving as a key policy engagement channel for MORU researchers to directly collaborate with national malaria control programs (NMCPs).
In all, 111 participants attended the meeting, including 44 members from NMCPs representing 19 of 22 Asia Pacific APMEN partner countries – a record high representation for APMEN events.
To find out more about APMEN, visit the APMEN website.
View the full agenda and presentations
- Text: Massaya Sirimatayanant for text. Photo: APMEN.