*EPF108 11/18/2002
Text: Malaria Researchers Discuss Counter-Disease Strategies
(U.S. co-sponsors meeting in Arusha to generate momentum against disease) (870)

World-renowned malaria researchers gather in Arusha, Tanzania November 17-22 to exchange ideas and counter-disease strategies at the Third Pan-African Conference on Malaria.

Malaria is one of Africa's greatest killers and a serious disease in all tropical regions of the world. Research in recent years has also identified the disease as a major factor in inhibiting economic development in Africa, according to the World Health Organization. This realization occurs in tandem with another disturbing trend: many strains of malaria are now resistant to drugs long-used to control the disease.

With these motivating factors, the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) was formed in the mid-1990s by a consortium of government, international and private institutions to more aggressively pursue treatments and vaccines against the disease. MIM is sponsoring the Arusha meeting in order to generate discussion about scientific solutions to prevent malaria and reduce its burden.

The Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health serves as the secretariat for MIM and is a co-sponsor of the meeting.

The conference Web page is available at http://mim.nih.gov/english/events/3rd_mim_conf/index.html

Following is the press release from the conference Web site:

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3rd MIM Pan-African Conference on Malaria
Arusha, Tanzania

November 17-22, 2002

The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) will hold the 3rd Pan-African Conference on Malaria in Arusha, Tanzania in November 2002.

The Arusha Conference (2002) will focus on scientific progress and potential in malaria research with the aim of promoting the exchange of scientific ideas within Africa. The Conference will have specific sessions to discuss mechanisms for linking scientific research and malaria control activities. More than twenty MIM-supported research projects across Africa will also be presented. The Conference will consist of plenary presentations by world-renowned experts, numerous symposia on a broad range of topics, and daily poster sessions. There will be ample opportunities to converse with malaria research expert faculty in "Meet-the-Professor" sessions. The Conference will be organized by the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR)- Tanzania, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-USA in collaboration with other agencies world-wide.

The diversity of participants and symposia panelists will provide the Conference attendee with a global perspective on the scientific solutions to effectively prevent malaria and reduce its burden.

About MIM

The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) is a global alliance of organizations and individuals concerned with malaria in Africa. It aims to maximize the impact of scientific research on malaria in Africa through promotion of capacity building and facilitation of global collaboration and coordination. The initiative creates a forum for exchange of resources, information and ideas between African malaria researchers and those working in developed countries, and thus fosters global collaborations among the groups working in malaria. Establishing communication and interaction also assists the groups working on malaria to focus on common problems and reinforces the need to collaborate more closely.

Malaria is a major disease in Africa and a primary cause of poverty. Every day 5,000 children die from malaria. Every year there are more than 1 billion clinical cases among children and adults worldwide. Scientific challenges and opportunities in the control of malaria are ever changing, from changes due to global warming-encouraging malaria vectors to flourish to the development of world-wide parasite resistance to anti-malaria drugs.

This Pan-African Conference is a tremendous opportunity for scientists, clinicians and public health workers to share their knowledge and experience with colleagues from across Africa and from around the world.

Previous MIM Conferences

The organization of the Pan-African Malaria Conference is one of the most important activities of MIM. The MIM-Conferences in Dakar in January 1997 and Durban in March 1999 provided opportunities for African scientists to meet, strengthen partnerships, facilitate exchange of information, share resources and expertise, and discuss the standardization of research methodologies and reagents. In the past, African scientific partnerships tended to focus on Europe and the US; interactions across Africa were minimal. These Conferences have played a key role in encouraging collaboration and linkages of limited and fragmented resources in Africa into a network that can have a stronger scientific and public health impact.

The Dakar Conference was organized specifically to identify the key research questions that must be answered to make progress against malaria in Africa, and the format of the meeting was tailored to this aim; participants were asked to address specific questions in small focused discussion groups. The priorities that were agreed upon at this meeting subsequently guided the directions of concerted action under MIM.

The Durban Conference was intended to provide a more general scientific forum and had a number of interrelated objectives: to promote scientific collaborations across Africa and internationally; to strengthen pan-African and regional research and control networks; to promote dialogue at the research- implementation interface; and to report on the progress of MIM activities. The Conference was open to all malaria researchers and control program personnel and combined plenary keynote addresses, break-away group presentations and discussions and poster sessions. The agenda addressed malaria research ongoing in Africa with a more practical and applied emphasis to malaria prevention and control.

Both Conferences had the broad objective of bringing together scientists from all regions of Africa to address the problem of malaria with a more concerted and cohesive approach.

Reports for the Dakar and the Durban Conferences are available at:
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/malaria/malafr/default.htm
http://mim.nih.gov/english/achievements/conference.html

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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