A coalition born to support elimination and eradication

We are Peruvian and overseas expert malaria researchers who coordinate and provide research evidence to the Malaria-Zero Plan, aiming to translate our scientific findings into malaria elimination strategies that can be implemented in the public health system.

Malaria is the most important parasitic disease in the Peruvian Amazon region, where 95% of the country’s total number of cases is concentrated.
Photo: Pablo Tsukayama.

The goal: To eliminate malaria once and for all

In 2017, the Ministry of Health approved the Plan Malaria Cero (Zero Malaria Plan-PMC), the first program aimed at eliminating a communicable disease approved in the last 50 years. The plan is aimed at eliminating this disease by 2030.

The Malaria Laboratory of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute of Tropical Medicine of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia organized in June 2019 a workshop on Next Generation Sequencing for Malaria Research. National and foreign expert malaria researchers got together for the workshop to discuss the needs and the future of malaria research.

Institutions that participated in the first meeting included the Ministry of Health (Directorate General for Strategic Interventions in Public Health, through the Directorate for Prevention and Control of Metaxenic and Zoonotic Diseases, led by the PMC), Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana (UNAP), Global Health Institute of the University of Antwerp (Belgium), Supranational Reference Malaria Laboratory of the National Institute of Health (INS), U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 6 and U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.

The implementation of Molecular diagnostic and typing methods is crucial to prevent malaria resurgence. Photo: @CienciayEsquina.

In 2017, the Ministry of Health approved the Plan Malaria Cero (PMC) (Zero Malaria Plan), the first program aimed at eliminating a communicable disease approved in the last 50 years. The plan is aimed at eliminating this disease by 2030. For the first time in Peru, the goal will be to eliminate the malaria reservoir by implementing molecular diagnostic methods that are more sensitive, so they can detect the presence of very few parasites in the blood. This intervention is crucial to prevent malaria resurgence.

The idea of creating a consortium for malaria research in Peru came up during the first meeting with the aim of standardizing criteria and conducting research works whose results can be used in the Zero Malaria Plan to achieve its goal of controlling and eliminating the disease. It would be an interinstitutional collaboration that will group research institutions, universities and the public health system.

The idea of a coalition was brought during a series of brainstorming meetings about how research institutions and universities’ work could support the "Plan Malaria Cero" initiative.

A research consortium

We are a multidisciplinary team of molecular and cellular biologists, clinical and genomic epidemiologists, medical doctors and researchers from other knowledge areas actively involved in malaria research and surveillance. Our members represent research institutions, academics and government branches that aim to support malaria elimination in Peru and other endemic Amazonian areas.

As a coalition, we enable organizations to pool resources with other experts to foster innovative approaches to drive malaria elimination.

Expert resources are available through collaboration between our members. Photo: @CienciayEsquina.

Meet our members