Recent data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicates that progress on global malaria elimination has effectively slowed to a halt. In response, Burnet Institute has gathered an international alliance to tackle the problem.
Malaria is notoriously difficult to tackle. Gains made are fragile, and all too easily overturned as the disease continues to find a way around existing prevention strategies, diagnostic tests and treatments.
Burnet researchers have led significant discoveries that have proven pivotal in developing next generation vaccines and drugs.
When the WHO announced that progress on elimination had stalled, we were determined to get it back on track. Our approach was to coordinate a multi-lateral, multidisciplinary response that would attack the disease from every possible angle.
“We’ve got really strong links with people throughout South East Asia and in parts of Africa, so we can really bring that group together. There’s a collaborative spirit, a willingness and commitment in the field as a whole.” —Professor James Beeson
We rallied colleagues with specialist expertise at The University of Melbourne, Deakin University, and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), and we established partnerships with local teams in endemic countries: Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda.
Where are we now?
- Burnet discovered how malaria parasites modify their human host cells to inform new antimalarials; and how the immune system fights malaria, informing vaccine development.
- We proved that topical insect repellents have a role in prevention-strategies.
- We trained dozens of researchers in malaria-endemic countries.
- We developed new vaccine candidates with potential to provide better protection from malaria.
- And we showed that protective immunity to malaria generated by vaccines in children is generally short-lived.