Background
Once regarded as a relatively benign infection, Plasmodium vivax is now acknowledged to be an important public health threat, capable of causing life-threatening disease complications, debilitating recurrent infections, miscarriage and chronic infections. Compared with P. falciparum, P. vivax exhibits far more extensive genetic diversity, and has numerous adaptive biological mechanisms, such as the ability to develop dormant liver stages (hypnozoites) and the emergence of transmissible blood stages (gametocytes) before clinical symptoms. At APMEN’s inaugural meeting in 2009, Plasmodium vivax infections were identified as a common threat to malaria control across the region. The APMEN Vivax Working Group (VxWG) was established to specifically address this issue.
Objectives
The VxWG’s objectives include -
- Identifying knowledge gaps and operational research priorities necessary for the optimal control and elimination of vivax malaria
- Sharing research and operational experience between APMEN Country Partners to maximise synergistic activities and minimise unnecessary duplication
- Developing and sustaining partnerships with key stakeholders involved in the regional elimination for vivax malaria
- Working through APMEN to advocate for improved funding of P.vivax control and research activities.
Functions
The Working Group’s activities are focused on addressing key questions defined by the APMEN Country Partners and are closely aligned with regional elimination strategies. The Working Group’s programme responds to the emerging needs of countries as they move through their different stages toward elimination. The working group has a cyclical approach to prioritise its activities: starting with identifying key knowledge gaps, building consensus regarding priority areas, generating necessary evidence and then facilitating translating findings into policy and practice. Activities are centred around three main themes to ensure the greatest relevance to antimalarial policy and practice: diagnostics, treatment, and surveillance.
Governance and Coordination Team
The APMEN Vivax Working Group is currently supported by a coordinating team from the Medicines for Malaria Venture.
Dr Neena Valecha, clinical pharmacologist and malariologist from India is a globally recognized researcher. Dr Valecha has spent over 30 years in malaria research and clinical pharmacology. She worked as Regional Adviser, Malaria at the World Health Organization South-East Asia Region (WHO SEARO) for three and half years. Prior to that, Dr Valecha led the ICMR- National Institute of Malaria Research, the only research institute of India devoted to malaria research, as Director.
She has published over 200 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and has served on several national and international committees including Malaria Policy Advisory Committee of WHO. Presently, she is member of Malaria Strategic Advisory Panel (MSAP), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network Vivax Working Group, alternate board member of Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Geneva, member of expert scientific advisory group of Medicines for Malaria Venture, Geneva. She is Fellow of two science academies in India and has received several prestigious awards including NASI-Prof. V. P. Sharma Memorial Lecture Award 2018 and Dr. M.O.T. Iyengar Memorial Award 2011 of Indian Council of Medial Research (ICMR).
Dr Caroline Lynch (Carrie) is the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) regional advisor covering the Greater Mekong Subregion, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. She is a parasitologist and epidemiologist with nearly 20 years’ experience leading, designing, delivering, evaluating and influencing malaria control, maternal health and family planning programmes across 30 countries. Carrie holds a PhD in Malaria Epidemiology with a focus on migration and malaria in Uganda from LSHTM and an MSc in Applied Parasitology and Medical Entomology from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Before her current position with MMV, Carrie was Principal Investigator (PI) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for the LINK project. Carrie has also worked as a consultant providing high-level technical advice for several organisations including; UNICEF, AusAID (DfAT), DFID, UNDP, WHO, Roll Back Malaria, and the Malaria Consortium in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Carrie is a member of the WHO Tropical Disease Research Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee and is on advisory board for the Australian Centre of Research Excellence in Malaria Elimination (ACREME).
Manash is a public health professional and a social scientist with a diverse background and varied research interests.
Manash holds a PhD in Health Social Sciences and an MPH (Masters in Public Health) from Mahidol University, Thailand. He has been involved in epidemiological and behavioral research related to influenza vaccination and worked at the Center of Excellence for Research on Gender, Sexuality and Health in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Mahidol University. Prior to moving into the field of health social sciences, Manash originally trained as a dental surgeon and worked in the field of community dentistry in Nepal.
Before joining the APMEN Vivax Working Group as Technical Coordinator, Manash worked with the Malaria Consortium Asia, where he was a technical and managerial sub-coordinator for the Thailand Mobile Migrant Population Survey in 2017 and 2018. He has also worked as a consultant for various regional civil society organization meetings in Bangkok.