New malaria network to research Pacific strain

from Radio Australia

presenter: Sean Dorney, Australia Network
Speakers: Sir Richard Feachem, the Professor of Global Health at the University of California

Hear the interview with Windows Media at http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/onairhighlights/new-malaria-network-to-research-pacific-strain

One of the first tasks of the new Asia-Pacific Malaria Elimination Network will be to gain a better understanding of the malaria strain found in the Pacific. The Chairman of the new organisation Professor Sir Richard Feachem is visiting Solomon Islands after having successfully guided representatives of the 10 countries in the group through its inaugural meeting in Brisbane. Professor Feachem is taking a particular interest in the malaria elimination programs which have been adopted in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Dorney: Professor Feachem spent some of his early years as a doctor in the Solomons and although he is now Professor of Global Health at the University of California he's still very much engaged with the Pacific. At the conclusion of the first meeting of this new Malaria Elimination Network, I asked him how the meeting had gone.

Feachem: The discussions were very lively and I think we're ending the meeting with a great sense of purpose going forward and a strong feeling that the Malaria Elimination Network can really assist the region and assist individual countries and that Australia will play a leading role in all that.

Dorney: The University of Queensland hosted the meeting which was funded by Australia. I asked Sir Richard what happens now?

Feachem: Well, what happens next is we'll write the business plan which will describe exactly what the Network will do; to get that funded - and that will be the Australian Government, probably contributions from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and then we're also inviting Japan and South Korea and other countries in the region to make a financial contribution. And then really launch the work on a big scale. That will include the creation of a task-force to look in detail at the particular challenges of plasmodium vivax, the form of malaria that is most common in the Asia Pacific region which has been greatly neglected because it doesn't happen in Africa. And the malaria focus has been very much on Africa. Quite rightly - there's very good reasons for that - most children who die of malaria are African children. But it's caused this historic neglect of the Asian and Latin American parasite which is so-called vivax, plasmodium vivax. And so one of the first things the Network will do is get a very vigorous program of work underway to better understand how to diagnose and treat vivax malaria.

Dorney: Sir Richard said there had been some good news just recently with the release of a new formulation of the most common anti-malarial drug suitable for the very young.

Feachem: Up until now there hasn't been a paediatric formulation. Very young children and babies get malaria and they die of malaria if they're not treated. So up until now we've had a problem that we haven't had a paediatric formulation. Well, a couple of weeks ago, a soluble, paediatric formulation for this drug was launched on the market. And that's a big contribution.

Dorney: Sir Richard is closely involved with the malaria elimination programs in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. I asked him if these two Melanesian countries would be able to eradicate malaria?

Feachem: The Solomons and Vanuatu aren't going to get rid of it within a few years. What they're going to do, or they've already started to do is pick a province. They've each picked a province. Vanuatu has picked TAFEA Province, the most southerly province, and the Solomon Islands has picked Temotu which is the most south-easterly province and they've said, 'We're going to eliminate quickly in those provinces. And then we're going to move.' So it's like island hopping in the Second World War. My hunch is that within three years we could get rid of malaria completely from TAFEA Province in Vanuatu and maybe in five years from Temotu Province. Then in Vanuatu we have to move to the next province. That might be Efate, the island where Port Vila is. Or we might jump way to the north to the Banks and Torres Islands and so we're squeezing it from both ends. In the Solomons my hunch is the next target will be the island of Isabel, a big central island but having today little malaria because there's so much community engagement on Isabel with health in general and malaria in particular. I'm actually going to Honiara tomorrow and one of the things I'm doing is meeting with a group of leaders from Isabel to talk about the early stages of Isabel getting ready to eliminate which I think could be done.

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