In 2021, the MESA Alliance, hosted by our initiative, completed and presented four systematic evidence reviews to the World Health Organisation as key elements for guiding policies on chemoprevention for malaria. The MESA Alliance also co-organised a keystone symposium entitled “Malaria in the Era of COVID-19”, which addressed key challenges of malaria research in the midst of the pandemic.
In Mozambique, we have been busy building next-generation sequencing capacities and undertaking genetic studies of Plasmodium falciparum with the aim of establishing an operational malaria molecular surveillance system (1). This genomic intelligence will help to identify parasite resistance to drugs and diagnostic tests, better understand malaria transmission dynamics, and evaluate malaria interventions and innovative surveillance approaches.
We advanced in the preparatory phases of two projects: BOHEMIA, whose aim is to develop mass drug administration (MDA) of ivermectin as a complementary vector-control tool to address residual transmission, and ADAM, which is working with the National Malaria Control Programme in Mozambique to develop an optimised MDA and reactive focal drug administration strategy towards malaria elimination.
We are also happy to say that the MESA Alliance received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the malaria implementation science community, while ISGlobal’s designation as WHO Collaborating Centre for Malaria Control, Elimination and Eradication was also renewed.
