The overall goal of this proposal is the establishment the Centro Latino Americano de investigacion en Malaria - CLAIM as a non-Amazonian malaria research center that would generate knowledge and provide technical and scientific support to governments of the partner countries as well as to organizations and health care institutions to further contribute to malaria elimination programs in the regions.
CL AIM would initially bring together field sites from Colombia, Peru, Panama and Guatemala, and has plans to further include sites from Ecuador and Honduras and possibly other endemic countries of the Latin American (LA) and the Caribbean such as Haiti.
CL AIM will be composed of multiple public and private research centers from the original partner countries, including centers and organizations depending from or associated to the Ministries of Health (MOH) from all participant countries.
CL AIM has also involved consultants/collaborators from the Andean Health Organism and/or the US Centers for Disease Control for this ICEMR program. In addition, to the scientists from the partner countries, CLAIM will have the participation of prominent and experienced scientists from other endemic countries such as Ecuador and Brazil, as well as from United State (USA) and Europe. The ICEMR research activities have been divided into three closely inter-related projects as follows: Project 1 on Epidemiology will determine the ecological and epidemiological features in non-Amazonian regions; Project 2 on malaria transmission will address major gaps in our understanding of the ecology, behavior, vector potential, and control of Anopheles malaria vectors to guide the development and implementation of more effective integrated Vector Management (IVM) strategies, and Project 3 on malaria pathogenesis, that it will determine the clinical outcome of malaria infections and its correlation with the immunological status in communities living under different intensifies of malaria transmission in the study region.
CL AIM would involve its epidemiology team to closely work with the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) of all partner countries, to locate and track the hot spots and to assess the changing epidemiological conditions, identifying the malaria patterns and establishing linkages with environmental and anthropogenic factors or other determinants of malaria transmission. The study team will provide technical assistance for helping NMCPs improve surveillance operations, including quality control and assurance of data with respect to diagnostics. This ICEMR proposal includes training activities for selected junior scientists and groups of researchers/technicians. Special projects will be initiated by Year 3 of the program and will profit to redirect the program and/or involve other countries. A Data Management (DM) Core will coordinate all research protocol, DM, data analyses and publications. All CLAIM activities will be coordinated by Core A under responsibility of Caucaseco SRC.
CL AIM will combine the multidisciplinary and integrated approach to enhance the research underpinnings for effective malaria elimination and possibly eradication. Data and findings generated by this Center are expected to provide input critical to inform future research design and evaluation of new interventions and control strategies.
This is a comprehensive project designed to establish an international Center of Excellence for Malaria Research in Latin America (CLAIM) composed of multiple public and private research centers from the endemic countries, the USA and Europe working jointly to find alternatives for malaria control. Results will facilitate malaria elimination in low malaria endemic settings.
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