This proposal outlines continued collaboration between the Malaria Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Malaria Epidemiology Section of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) to support CDC partners in malaria endemic countries in the conduct of collaborative research to improve the control of malaria in Africa and in Indonesia and to coordinate international research initiatives for malaria control. LSTM, on behalf of the Malaria in Pregnancy (MiP) Consortium, will coordinate research strategy development between CDC and other International partners in Europe, Australia and endemic countries for future studies of the control of malaria in pregnancy. In addition, a range of research projects will be conducted jointly between LSTM, CDC and the overseas partners of CDC in Indonesia (the Eijkman Institute, Jakarta) and in western Kenya (KEMRI-CDC field station). These fall under three main objectives: malaria control;malaria in pregnancy;and integrated disease control, following the outline of the original call. Several projects start in year 1 and reflect an extension of the joint activities as part of the existing cooperative agreement (CoAg) between LSTM and CDC's Malaria Branch. These include a study to develop tools to monitor antimalarial drug safety in early pregnancy and a survey to evaluate a new rapid assessment toolkit for the evaluation of access, delivery and use of interventions for malaria in pregnancy, both in western Kenya;the central coordination of a multi-country observational study in Africa to determine the effect of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) resistance on intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) effectiveness, and two studies in Indonesia: a) a study evaluating the use of cell-phone technology to improve malaria surveillance by village based health-care workers in remote settings in Indonesia;b) evaluation of the performance of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for the control of malaria in pregnancy in remote settings. In addition, grant proposals will be written in years 1 and 2 to generate research funds for the activities planned in years 2-5, including studies of integrated approaches to disease control which combine screening for HIV with scheduled screening for malaria, syphilis and anemia, and use of intermittent screening and treatment of malaria in pregnancy. During the course of the CoAg, LSTM will provide technical support to CDC as requested for specific pharmacokinetic studies in HIV- infected adults, in children (age-based dosing) and in pregnant women (Mefloquine). Lastly, the activities include formal PhD training of individuals and short-term training in clinical trial methodology. LSTM will also continue to provide technical advice to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Roll Back Malaria (RBM) in support of scaling up of malaria control interventions globally.
Collaboration between malaria Branch of CDC and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to conduct research to improve the control of malaria in high risk populations, with a special emphasis on studies of the treatment and prevention of malaria in pregnancy in Indonesia and Kenya.
