International Partner Highlights
On March 22, 2015, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) facilitated a Malaria Partners Meeting with the participation of AMI/RAVREDA partners and other selected malaria stakeholders from the research and cooperation sectors. PAHO/WHO then led the annual evaluation meeting together with the Brazilian Ministry of Health. PAHO/WHO’s Regional Malaria Program has been supporting Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia, and other AMI countries to plan in vivo efficacy studies and maintain their capacity for routine surveillance of efficacy and resistance to anti malarials. PAHO/WHO has also worked to correct critical deficiencies in the antimalarial procurement and distribution process, most recently by coordinating the joint procurement of antimalarial medicines for nine countries and fulfilling urgent requests to help treat drug resistant strains of malaria from outside the region, as well as the donation of treatments for severe malaria cases as requested by some countries. In May 2015, a regional training to improve the quality of microscopic diagnosis is scheduled to occur in coordination with Honduras’ National Reference Laboratory, Peru’s National Institute of Health, and Mexico’s Institute of Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference for certification of personnel from Southern Cone and Amazon basin countries. The fourth round of External Quality Assurance (EQAP) performance assessments led by PAHO/WHO will further expand the network to over 20 national reference laboratories in the region. In parallel, bench aids for malaria microscopy have been translated into Spanish and distributed to countries. PAHO/WHO provided assistance to Honduras to expand malaria diagnosis to the remote area of La Moskitia using rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), and together with the US CDC has advised on vector control activities in Guyana. Finally, PAHO/WHO will form a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to guide the future activities of PAHO’s Regional Malaria Program on malaria prevention, control and elimination efforts, including the development of the new Regional Plan for Malaria for 2016–2020 in alignment with the WHO/Global Technical Strategy for malaria (GTS 2016–2030).
From March 2–6, 2015, AMI partners including USAID, PAHO/WHO, CDC, SIAPS, USP/PQM, and Links Media traveled to Iquitos, Peru as part of an expert consultation meeting coordinated by PAHO/WHO and USAID. The consultation meeting brought together national and local-level partners from a variety of sectors to identify recommendations to be presented to health authorities in order to address the increased number of malaria cases in the region of Loreto.