World’s largest gathering of malaria experts to convene in Durban, South Africa
23 September 2013
Scientists will present the latest groundbreaking research on preventing, controlling and eliminating malaria. Emerging resistance to drugs and insecticides are among agenda items.
At the Sixth Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference — the world’s largest gathering of malaria experts — to be held in Durban, South Africa, 6-11 October 2013, leading scientists from across Africa and around the world who are pushing this groundbreaking research forward, will gather to present their latest findings in the areas of malaria diagnostics, control (including insecticides and mosquito behavior), treatment (drugs), and prevention (including long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying and vaccines).
Even as the malaria community celebrates ten years of progress in driving down the unacceptable number of deaths from malaria — particularly of children in sub-Saharan Africa — threats to the success loom on the horizon. Resistance by the malaria parasite to the most effective drugs, and by mosquitoes to frontline insecticides (used in long-lasting insecticide-treated nets and indoor residual spraying), is spreading. Donor funding for malaria has plateaued, leading experts to fear a repeat of what happened 50 years ago when donor fatigue and a lack of new tools resulted in a resurgence of malaria that took roughly a million lives a year in 2000.
The malaria community is responding by racing to hold on to the gains of the last ten years, while at the same time continuing to develop the tools that could help to eliminate and eventually eradicate malaria.
At the conference, subtitled "Moving Towards Malaria Elimination: Investing in Research and Control," they will be joined by thousands of other experts, national malaria control programme managers, policymakers, health care workers and community members who will highlight new developments and remaining challenges in the fight to defeat malaria once and for all.
Despite unprecedented advances, malaria continues to infect approximately 219 million people around the world each year. In 2010, it took the lives of an estimated 660,000 people — the vast majority young children in Africa. History has shown that decrease in support for fighting malaria in areas where significant progress has been made lead to a resurgence of the disease, potentially undoing years of effort and investment and putting millions of lives at risk.
The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM), launched in Dakar, Senegal in 1997, is an international alliance of organisations and individuals seeking to maximise the impact of scientific research against malaria in Africa to ensure that research findings yield practical health benefits. The MIM conference in Durban follows successful conferences held in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in November 2005, and in Nairobi in October 2009. The MIM Secretariat is currently hosted by the Biotechnology Centre of the University of Yaoundé I/Amsterdam Medical Centre.
Invited speakers
- Dr. Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, Roll Back Malaria Partnership
- Dr. Robert D. Newman, Global Malaria Programme, World Health Organization
- Dr. Vasee Moorthy, Department of Immunization, Vaccines & Biologicals, World Health Organization
- Professor Nick J. White, Mahidol University and University of Oxford
- Professor Kelly Chibale, University of Cape Town
- Professor Alister Craig, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
- Professor Arjen Dondorp, University of Oxford
- Dr. Stephen L. Hoffman, SANARIA
- Professor Kiaran Kirk, Australian National University’s Research School of Biology
- Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski, MRC Centre for Genomics and Global Health of the University of Oxford and the Sanger Institute
- Dr. Abdisalan Mohamed Noor, Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Programme
- Dr. Olumide AT Ogundahunsi, Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization
- Professor Hilary Ranson, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
- Dr. Kenneth Vernick, University of Minnesota Medical School
Topics from the six-day conference
- Malaria elimination and eradication. How much progress have we made toward the global goal of eradicating malaria? Is it still feasible?
- New advancements in malaria vaccine development. Is the promise of a malaria vaccine going to translate into an actual life-saving tool in the near future?
- New advancements in malaria therapies. Are new drugs needed to control malaria? What’s new in the malaria drug pipeline that addresses the elimination and eradication of malaria?
- Tracking growing resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) and an increasing counterfeit market for these essential drugs. Malaria parasites in Southeast Asia are showing signs of resistance to some of our most powerful malaria drugs, and counterfeit versions are a large part of the problem. How can we counteract the counterfeit market? And what happens if resistance spreads to Africa? What does this mean for ACTs? What’s next in the pipeline for malaria treatments?
- New tools for managing increasing resistance among mosquitoes to our best insecticides. Resistance has been identified in 64 countries so far. What’s in the pipeline for new insecticides if the current ones—the key to long-lasting insecticide-treated nets and indoor residual spraying—fail?
- Using rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) to identify malaria. Accurately diagnosing malaria early is key to treating it. But not all fevers are malaria. How do you quickly identify malaria and what’s next for diagnostics?
- Protecting pregnant women from malaria. How do we increase access to bednets and treatments, as well as develop appropriate chemoprevention and vaccines, for one of the populations most vulnerable to malaria?
- Malaria and children. How do we deliver on the promise of better malaria medicines for children? Why are pediatric ACTs not being widely adopted? How can children be protected in the malaria season? And what role can schools play in controlling and eliminating malaria?
Further information