5th MIM Pan-African malaria conference
Trying hard not to trip over in the muddy puddles while I queued patiently in the wrong place to register, I was excited to be in Nairobi and to be attending my first MIM malaria conference. In short, this is what I took home...
It's official; eradication and elimination are no longer the dirty words they used to be when I was a student and were the subject of much discussion and debate that monopolised one whole day at the conference.
Being very aware of the mistakes and assumptions made by the eradication pioneers of the 60s, a 3-pronged strategy is now GO to wipe out malaria. Summarised nicely by Richard Feachem, this strategy includes:
- Aggressive control in the heartland, to achieve very low transmission and mortality in those tropical countries currently experiencing the highest burden of disease and death
- Progressive elimination from the endemic margins to shrink the malaria map
- Research to bring forward a vaccine and better drugs, diagnostics, insecticides and other tools
It's a lofty and ambitious goal, but I was reassured during the malERA (malaria eradication research agenda) session by how realistic the researchers are being in terms of not predicting how long this might take and by their recognition of how difficult it will be to eradicate such a complex public health disease.
I was also really interested in the subject of much discussion inside and out of the conference centre; the reasons behind the reports of a decrease in the number of cases of malaria from several parts of Africa over the last few years. Is it the introduction of new malaria control interventions, such as artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) and insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) that are having a major part to play, or are there other factors - such as climate and improved housing (just two I heard people mention) that are also partly responsible?
