Asia

   Country Statistics

   Malaria Consortium in Asia

   Activities 

   Projects currently undertaken in Asia

   Country Progress
 

Country Statistics

	Thailand	Cambodia
Population size (2009)	67.8 million	14.8 million
Life expectancy (2005)	69.6 years	58 years
Child Mortality (Deaths Before the Age of 5) (2007)	7 per 1,000 live births	91 per 1,000 live births
Maternal Mortality (2005)	110 per 100,000 births	590 per 100,000 births
Percentage of HIV-positive adults (15-49) (2007)	1.4%	0.8%
Percentage of households with ≥ 1 mosquito nets (2007)	-	96%
Percentage of Insecticide Treated Net Coverage (2006)	1%	3.1%
Number of reported malaria cases (2007)	30,293	59,848
Number of reported malaria deaths (2007)	113	241

Statistical data obtained from DESA, UNDP, UNICEF, UNAIDS and WHO

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Malaria Consortium in Asia

Since its inception, Malaria Consortium has been constantly engaged with malaria control in Asia, working innovatively on current and emerging challenges faced there. In July 2007 Malaria Consortium established a new regional office in Bangkok, Thailand to support the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) which includes Cambodia, Thailand, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam, and China’s Yunnan Province.

Malaria Consortium Asia works with communities, health systems, government and non-government agencies, academic institutions plus local and international organisations to ensure good evidence-based delivery of effective services. It has had a particular focus on providing technical support for the monitoring and evaluation of programs to ensure the use of evidence-based decision-making and strategic planning.

Despite lower malaria incidences compared to African settings, the GMS faces significant challenges to maintain the successes achieved thus far in malaria control and prevention.  Malaria Consortium has been a key partner in capacity building and training in Asia through the Asian Collaborative Training Network for Malaria (ACTMalaria Network) since its inception in the early 1990s.  Now with the threat of artemisinin resistance spreading in the region and beyond, Malaria Consortium is taking a leading role and continues to work closely with national authorities and partners to tackle this public health emergency.

Malaria Consortium Asia established its regional office in Bangkok, Thailand in July 2007, and has signed a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding with Mahidol University’s Faculty of Tropical Medicine where its office is located.  The regional office manages and coordinates the various Malaria Consortium Asia activities to strengthen monitoring and evaluation capacity at country and wider GMS levels as well as providing overall monitoring, evaluation and technical support for the artemisinin-resistance containment strategy along the Thai-Cambodian borders.  In early 2009, Malaria Consortium Asia established a country office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and a field office in Pailin, Cambodia.

Our Activities

Monitoring and evaluation of malaria activities in the Greater Mekong Subregion

• Contributing to the development of a Regional Action Plan for Malaria Control and Elimination in the Western Pacific along with a monitoring and evaluation framework for the GMS
• Developing a monitoring and evaluation curriculum to train a cadre of country level professionals and supporting ACTMalaria training
• Conducting regional inventory of monitoring and evaluation and operations research capacity (including organization of a regional research symposium)
• Conducting social science research to improve delivery of malaria interventions for at-risk populations, including migrant farm workers and ethnic minorities.
• Preparing resource packs of key literature and tools for national malaria control programmes and partners.

• Providing technical expertise for the overall monitoring and evaluation of the project, including the development of the monitoring and evaluation Framework, design and conduct of household, drug outlet, and health facility surveys along with the evaluation of the use of low-tech methodologies to improve surveillance and case follow up 
• Providing technical advisory inputs through membership in national and international task forces and organisation of cross-border technical meetings throughout the project
• Supporting operational research activities (including a qualitative assessment of mass screening and treatment)
• Disseminating and sharing relevant information and outcomes from the project
• Organising technical cross-border meetings to harmonise monitoring and evaluation frameworks, malaria awareness programmes, migrant and mobile populations, and case management and surveillance strategies
• Providing technical assistance and support for Thailand’s Global Fund Round 7 monitoring and evaluation, capacity-building, and training
  

Projects Currently Undertaken in Asia
 

Project Title	Funding Organisation
Monitoring and Evaluation of Malaria Activities in the Greater Mekong Subregion	CDC
BMGF Containment Project: A Strategy to Contain Artemisinin-resistant Malaria Parasites in Southeast Asia	BMGF Principal Recipient is WHO
Containing artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasite and moving toward malaria pre-elimination status in Cambodia. Principal recipient is the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology, and Malaria Control (CNM)	Global Fund R9

Progress

• Supported the development and submission of Cambodia’s Global Fund R9 proposal
• Completed and distributed bibliography/review on migrants and mobile populations
• Actively contributed to the Roll Back Malaria Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group and others to develop regional monitoring and evaluation frameworks
• Completed a fact-finding mission in Cambodia to gather preliminary information on migrant and mobile populations which will be followed up with an in-depth qualitative survey on migrant behavioural risks and perceptions
• Contributed to the development and facilitation of ACTMalaria’s course on Management of Malaria Field Operations
• Organised and facilitated three cross-border technical meetings to harmonise the Containment Project’s monitoring and evaluation framework alongside strategies on malaria awarness and containing malaria amongst mobile and migrant populations
• Organised and supported a media trip of journalists (CNN, BBC, and Lancet) to Thailand and Cambodia to report on the issue of artemisinin-resistance and Malaria Consortium’s role in the project
• Opened country office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and a field office in Pailin, Cambodia.