On July 27, APMEN and APLMA met with the Ministry of Health and Sports, Myanmar led by the Honourable Union Minister, Dr Myint Htwe.

APMEN and APLMA commended Myanmar on its tremendous progress and the role of the Government in ensuring the country is on-track to end malaria in-country and beyond the borders.

Myanmar recently established a national task force for malaria elimination. The task force received Cabinet approval in June 2019 and the goal is to form committees at the sub-national level to work on malaria. Dr Myint Htwe emphasized that while Myanmar is making good progress, it should not become complacent and continue to focus efforts on elimination.

The Minister also highlighted the need for a system for notification and response for malaria in the private sector. PSI is working to get near real-time reports from the private sector and are currently getting reports from private hospitals. This year, they want to get more than 400 private clinics online to the reporting system. The Ministry also wants to shift the proportion of P. falciparum and P.vivax cases in the country towards 30:70 over the short-term.

The meeting paved way for the application from the Myanmar NMCP to join APMEN. Moving forward, APMEN will continue to work with the Myanmar leadership and the national malaria control program to continue building the momentum towards elimination and explore cross-learning opportunities with other countries in the Network.