Research Programme Consortium: Communicable Diseases, vulnerability, risk and poverty (COMDIS), Partners in UK, Uganda, Ghana, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Swaziland.
Situation:
COMDIS is the Communicable Disease Research Programme Consortium, funded by the British Government's Department for Overseas Development (DFID), and has been set up to investigate access to effective interventions on a large scale and reaching vulnerable people.
COMDIS researches and develops feasible and affordable interventions for TB, mala
ria and HIV care. The lead institution is the Nuffield Centre for International Health & Development, University of Leeds and the Malaria Consortium is coordinating and implementing the work in malaria which is mainly focused in Africa.
Response:
The programme investigates patient and provider issues and evaluates approaches to improve utilisation, delivery and quality of interventions together with health systems issues. A key strategy will be to anchor research within operational programmes, so that knowledge will be rapidly incorporated into policy and practice at scale in partner countries and elsewhere.
Malaria Consortium proposals already accepted for projects include:
- Impact of ITN distributions on malaria and lymphatic filariasis prevalence
- Comparison of 2 methods of ITN distribution, looking at retention and usage levels
- Prescribing practices in relation to ACTs in public sector
In addition, COMDIS is currently supporting a study by the Malaria Consortium on the sensitivity and specificity of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) in a highly endemic area of northern Uganda.
Points to note:
COMDIS provides a great opportunity to answer questions arising from country implementation programmes as they work to manage communicable diseases. It is vital that the answers provided by COMDIS activities are disseminated widely and used to inform the activities of control programmes across endemic countries.
In addition, the importance of continued support for operational research to inform implementation work, needs to be recognised by all involved in communicable disease control.
For more infomation about DFID and this project please click here
For COMDIS website please click here
Photo: COMDIS