9 December 2024
This year’s Scientific Forum focuses on the last mile of elimination use cases Plasmodium falciparum, advances in Plasmodium vivax genetic surveillance, opportunities in Anopheles genomics in malaria control and strategies to support near-elimination setting.
This meeting brought together 11 scientific partners and 18 public health representatives from five National Malaria Control Programmes (NMCPs) across the Greater Mekong Subregion (Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia) who attended on-site and 78 webinar attendees from 25 countries across five continents. The forum served as a platform for exchanging ideas, perspectives, and experiences, with a shared goal of advancing towards a sustainable malaria elimination program.
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The event, held on Monday, 9th December 2024, at the Eastin Grand Phayathai in Bangkok, began with a session on P. falciparum Genetic Epidemiology in Near-Elimination Settings by Dr. Varanya Wasakul from the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), addressed the challenges related to importation and outbreaks. This was followed by Professor Duoquan Wang of the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, China CDC, who shared insights on China’s Path to Malaria Elimination Certification and managing importation risks. The session concluded with a rich discussion among NMCP representatives from the GMS countries on use case priorities to support elimination.
The second session focused on Advances in Plasmodium vivax Surveillance included contributions from Assoc. Prof. Sarah Auburn from the Menzies School of Health Research (Australia), as well as Genetic Surveillance of P. vivax in the Greater Mekong Subregion, presented by Mr. Ethan Booth, a Research Scientist and DPhil student and Mr. Hidayat Trimarsanto, also from Menzies, discussed Predicting the Geographical Origin of P. vivax. The talks were followed by discussion on optimize sample collection strategies for rapid response, which is essential in order to support the last mile use cases.
In the afternoon, Dr. Martin Donnelly from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (UK) led a session on the Opportunities and Challenges of Anopheles Genomics in Malaria Control, followed by a discussion on the feasibility of implementing vector genetic surveillance in the GMS. Participants then engaged in hands-on practice with grcMapper, led by Dr. Wipawee Songsaeng, a Research Scientist at MORU. The final session, led by Prof. Olivo Miotto, focused on Technologies Supporting Surveillance, comparing PCR, Amplicon, and WGS for surveillance applications, followed by discussions on the feasibility of in-country implementation and building capacity among NMCPs.
📺 Recordings of the meeting is available
Article by: Supaporn Mahaphontrakoon (Pop)
Photo by: Supaporn Mahaphontrakoon (Pop) & Yupawadee Pimpat