20 November 2023
On 20 Nov, GenRe-Mekong held its the annual GenRe-Mekong Scientific Forum in Eastin Grand Hotel Phayathai Bangkok and online. The 24 onsite attendees, who included representatives from four regional National Malaria Control Programmes (NMCP), funders and scientific partners from the GMS, Australia, UK and Mozambique, were joined via webinar by 81 online attendees from 21 countries across five continents, all working collectively towards the goal of malaria elimination.
Engaging presentations and informative experience-sharing between malaria endemic countries generated discussions on the genetic surveillance of drug resistant Plasmodium falciparum strains in the GMS and development of other use cases – all invaluable for informing current and future strategies.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the Global Fund (GF), GenRe-Mekong is a large network for molecular surveillance of antimalarial drug resistance and molecular epidemiology of falciparum malaria in the GMS that provides NMCPs with frequent full reports on the epidemiology of malaria, including maps of drug resistance prevalence, and molecular surveillance integrated in the malaria elimination efforts funded by RAI, a large regional malaria GF grant.
“It was a pleasure to participate, meet the country representatives, and learn about the wonderful malaria genomic surveillance work being conducted in the GMS. It was also great to hear about the work of your international collaborators from Australia, Mozambique, Kenya, Ghana and the UK, many of whom are also BMGF grantees,” Dr Estee Torok, Senior Program Officer, Global Health – Malaria, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The GenRe-Mekong Scientific Forum, which continues to be a useful platform for promoting discussion and dissemination of knowledge for the malaria research community and NMCP officers alike, received overwhelmingly positive feedback from speakers and attendees.
đź“ş Recordings of the meeting is available
Article and Photos by: Supaporn Mahaphontrakoon (Pop) & Varanya Wasakul