Malaria Consortium to moderate the Pneumonia Symposium at the ASTMH

On November 15 Malaria Consortium is leading the Pneumonia Symposium at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s 65th annual meeting. The symposium will present recent research results designed to enhance global understanding of how to improve pneumonia case management in resource poor settings.

The agenda will include four topics including:
• Progressing towards universal access to pneumonia treatment
• The accuracy and acceptability of pneumonia diagnostic tools for community health workers
• Financial modelling of improved pneumonia diagnostics tools
• Health system strengthening for better pneumonia case management

Pneumonia is still the main killer of children in the world and many children who die from pneumonia do so as a result of inappropriate treatment due to misdiagnosis of symptoms. Therefore, Malaria Consortium’s focus on addressing pneumonia diagnostics represents a key component in achieving the target for Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 - ‘to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age

Malaria Consortium has taken a leading role in the research of improved diagnostics through a recent large-scale evaluation of new pneumonia diagnostic tools in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.