Research in malaria control relevant — Prof. Sankoh
The Executive Director of the INDEPTH Network, Prof. Osman Sankoh, says research is very important in addressing the health challenges that the world faces now, including malaria.
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According to him, the continued investment and political commitment to malaria prevention and control should include using research findings to have an impact on malaria policies and programmes to win the fight against the disease.
Prof. Sankoh said this in a statement to mark World Malaria Day, which fell on April 25.
According to the statement, the INDEPTH Network, a network of Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) centres, had monitored millions of people in Africa, Asia and Oceania over the past years and had contributed immensely to the fight against malaria.
The statement said in July 2012, INDEPTH partnered the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) based in Nairobi, Kenya, to conduct a review of the network's contribution to malaria research for the period 1998 to 2009.
The review report
The review uncovered a vast body of knowledge on the changing patterns in transmission; incidence of clinical disease in some sites in sub-Saharan Africa, and the significant impact of malaria control interventions such as insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) and artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs).
The systematic review found that socio-economic, environmental and genetic factors were significant determinants of malarial risk in most endemic settings.
In addition, knowledge gaps were identified in vector and parasite resistance, urban malaria, the impact of climate change and interventions to reduce inequities in access to malarial control interventions.
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“Studies at the Navrongo Health Research Institute, a member centre of INDEPTH, found that bed nets soaked in permethrine reduced child deaths by 17 per cent, which led to bed net provision being incorporated into health policies across Africa,” the statement said.
Again drug trials at the Manhica HDSS site in Mozambique, also an INDEPTH member centre, helped the national government to replace chloroquine with amodiaquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine as its principal malarial treatment. The Manhica site has helped develop a nationwide malarial risk map for the National Malaria Control Programme.
The MCT alliance
According to the statement, in what is known as an African solution to an African problem, INDEPTH pooled scientists and researchers to form the Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance in 2006 to strengthen human and infrastructural capacities of African trial sites so that they would contribute to the development of malarial vaccines and drugs.
“INDEPTH began by mobilising skilled research personnel and recruiting field workers and trial participants for the research involving almost 16,000 children,” it added.
RTS,S vaccine
The statement said the project gave the world great hope with the malaria RTS,S vaccine. The RTS,S candidate vaccine was found to be promising. Studies showed that it protects young African children against malaria infection and a range of clinical illnesses caused by plasmodium falciparum transmitted by the anopheles mosquito.
The RTS,S is the first malarial vaccine candidate to reach large-scale Phase III clinical testing (the last stage of development before regulatory file submission), which has been underway since May 2009 in seven African countries, namely Gabon, Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Burkina Faso.
It said the availability of a safe and effective malarial vaccine had the potential to greatly reduce the malarial burden.
The INESS project
Another important INDEPTH project in the fight against malaria is the INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies of Anti-malarial Drugs in Africa (INESS).
This is a viable platform to enable African researchers to carry out large Phase IV trials and to apply the findings to inform public policy.
“INESS has brought together seven HDSS centres to conduct effectiveness of anti-malarial drugs in Africa. It is the first time this kind of Phase IV study of antimalarials has taken place in Africa under the leadership of African researchers,” the statement said.