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ACT Consortium sees high turnout for five symposia at major malaria conference in Durban

17 October 2013

ICC conference centre in Durban

The ACT Consortium hosted five symposium sessions at the 6th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan African Conference, which took place from 7-11 October in Durban, South Africa.

The gathering happens once every four years and is used by international scientists to showcase their research, aimed to improve the control of malaria - a disease that kills around 660,000 people per year. 

Investigators from the ACT Consortium presented their research from ten countries and engaged in discussions on the use and cost-effectiveness of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, adherence to test results and interactions between antimalarial and HIV drugs. Professor David Schellenberg chaired one of the symposia, which provided an overview to the work of the Consortium and results from its four main research areas: access, targeting, safety and quality of artemisinin-based combination treatment (ACT).

Listen to the audio clips below to learn more about each symposium.
  
  
Symposium 1 (7th October 2013): "Cost‐effectiveness of interventions designed to support the scaling up of RDTs", by Dr Virginia Wiseman from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 

  
Symposium 2 (7th October 2013): "Introducing RDTs in different health sectors: interventions and impact in ACT Consortium studies", by Dr Clare Chandler from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  
  
Symposium 3 (7th October 2013): "Answering key questions on ACT drug delivery in Africa: findings from the work of the ACT Consortium", by Professor David Schellenberg from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 
  
  
Symposium 4 (7th October 2013): "Enhancing adherence to ACTs purchased from drug shops: results from four intervention studies", by Professor David Schellenberg from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 

  
Symposium 5  (9th October 2013): " 
Interactions between ACTs for malaria and ARVs for HIV: cause for concern?", 
by Dr Lasse Vestergaard from the University of Copenhagen