"Eliminate now: seven critical actions required to accelerate elimination of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion" by Andrew A. Lover

Article

Eliminate now: seven critical actions required to accelerate elimination of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion

Malaria Journal (2016)

Andrew A. Lover, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Roly Gosling, University of California, San Francisco
Richard Feachem, University of California, San Francisco
Jim Tulloch

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Abstract

The emergence in 2009 of Plasmodium falciparum parasites resistant to the primary therapies currently in use (artemisinin-based combination therapy, ACT) in Southeast Asia threatens to set back decades of global progress in malaria control and elimination. Progress to date through multiple sets of initiatives and partners to contain or eliminate these parasites has been hampered due to a wide range of organizational, financial, and health systems-level challenges. In this commentary, a set of seven specific and concrete actions are proposed to directly address these issues and to accelerate P. falciparum elimination within the Greater Mekong Subregion to avert a wider public health crisis. These actions are specifically needed to elevate the situation and response mechanisms to those of a true emergency; to address systems-level challenges with personnel limitations and stock-outs of key commodities; and to restructure the response mechanisms to be well-aligned with the required outcomes. Consideration of these issues is especially pressing with planning meetings for renewal of the Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI) framework slated for late 2016 and into 2017, but these suggestions are also relevant for malaria programmes globally.

Keywords

Malaria,
Mass Drug Administration,
Malaria Elimination,
Field Staff,
Artemisinin Resistance

Disciplines

Epidemiology

Publication Date

2016

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1564-3

Citation Information

Andrew A. Lover, Roly Gosling, Richard Feachem and Jim Tulloch. "Eliminate now: seven critical actions required to accelerate elimination of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion" Malaria Journal Vol. 15 (2016)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andrew-lover/3/

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY International License.