Abstract
In February 2014, the Malaria Elimination Working Group, in partnership with the Peruvian Ministry of Health (MoH), hosted its first international conference on malaria elimination in Iquitos, Peru. The 2-day meeting gathered 85 malaria experts, including 18 international panelists, 23 stakeholders from different malaria-endemic regions of Peru, and 11 MoH authorities. The main outcome was consensus that implementing a malaria elimination project in the Amazon region is achievable, but would require: 1) a comprehensive strategic plan, 2) the altering of current programmatic guidelines from control toward elimination by including symptomatic as well as asymptomatic individuals for antimalarial therapy and transmission-blocking interventions, and 3) the prioritization of community-based active case detection with proper rapid diagnostic tests to interrupt transmission. Elimination efforts must involve key stakeholders and experts at every level of government and include integrated research activities to evaluate, implement, and tailor sustainable interventions appropriate to the region.
Highlights
Malaria continues to represent a major public health threat, exerting a significant disease burden worldwide.[1]
Malaria elimination efforts are primarily focused on African countries and on Plasmodium falciparum due to the mortality it causes in the poorest countries in the African region.[4]
The most important one is that malaria elimination in the Peruvian Amazon can be achievable and should be a national and international priority
Summary
Malaria continues to represent a major public health threat, exerting a significant disease burden worldwide.[1]. Participants in this roundtable carried out a lively discussion on the need for improving current regional diagnostic platforms with more sensitive but portable diagnostics, for targeting rural communities and hard-to-reach high-risk populations such as loggers, farmers, and fishermen In this discussion, the group emphasized that it will be critical to introduce sufficiently sensitive RDTs that are appropriate for the Peruvian context as well as to address the administrative and logistical barriers that might prevent a regular and continuous supply. The group emphasized that it will be critical to introduce sufficiently sensitive RDTs that are appropriate for the Peruvian context as well as to address the administrative and logistical barriers that might prevent a regular and continuous supply This is true for both P. falciparum and P. vivax, given the high prevalence of PfHRP2,23 its multiple genetic origins,[24] and the considerable variability in the diagnostic accuracy of some of the pan-lactate dehydrogenase–detecting RDTs in the Peruvian Amazon.[60] In addition, its implementation should follow locally adapted guidelines. It will be essential to monitor and evaluate programs and interventions from a research perspective
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