ICIUM 2011
Malaria

The ICIUM 2011 Malaria Track program will combine oral presentations from accepted abstracts and an overview of the day’s topic area by an invited speaker. The Malaria track program in line with the conference objectives of ICIUM 2011 will seek to: 

  • Build an international consensus on effective and innovative interventions for efficiently and equitably improving and sustaining appropriate malaria medicine quality, provision, access and use.
  • Define a global research agenda in relation to appropriate malaria medicine quality, provision, access and use.

The presentations on each day will cover issues of chemotherapy and chemoprevention for malaria at the international (global and regional), national and community health systems (includes health care and financing institutions) levels, as well as the individual level of healthcare providers, consumers (including households) and patients. Issues of relevance in equitable access, quality and use of malaria medicines whether for chemotherapy or chemoprophylaxis include new medicines research and development, production, stocking, supply chains and quality assurance systems; financing, cost and affordability; geographic access and quality; diagnosis, prescribing and adherence. The detailed half-day program for the conference will cover the following 5 areas:

1 - INTERNATIONAL (GLOBAL AND REGIONAL) SYSTEMS, PROGRAMS AND POLICIES 

The session will be devoted to issues such as research and drug (R&D) development, production, supply chain and management systems and policies and programs, financing costs, quality, access and surveillance as they relate to malaria chemotherapy and chemoprevention. The session specifically seeks to discuss:

  • Issues related to pharmaco-genomics
  • How immunity interplays with pathogen clearance as well as nutrition factors to affect clinical outcomes
  • Meta analysis of the efficacy and safety of drugs
  • Country-specific or continental genetic mutational sweeps and diversity
  • New ways to measure malaria resistance
  • New formulations to circumvent resistance
  • The role of pharmaceutical industry
  • Issues related to drug quality in different settings, substandard and counterfeit medicines
  • Innovative methods of determining the quality of antimalarials.

2 - NATIONAL SYSTEMS, PROGRAMS AND POLICIES  

This session will specifically advance the knowledge of participants on: 

  • National antimalarial policies and programs
  • Pharmacovigilance and adverse event monitoring
  • Demand and supply analysis of antimalarials (market analysis)
  • National production, supply chain and management systems, in relation to antimalarials

3 - HEALTHCARE AND FINANCING INSTITUTIONS 

The primary focus will be on health systems and policies in malaria chemotherapy and chemoprevention. Hence, the session will be devoted to:

  • Health systems & policies in relation to chemoprevention and chemotherapy of malaria
  • Pharmaco-epidemiology and pharmaco-economics concerning the treatment and prevention of malaria
  • Economic evaluation
  • Financing mechanisms such as the AMFm

4 - HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS 

The session will deal with issues regarding case management and chemoprevention of malaria, especially amongst children and pregnant women. It seeks to cover areas relevant to:

  • Intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) of malaria in infants (IPTi), children (IPTc), and pregnant women (IPTp)
  • Formulations of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) for improved provision and consumption of the chemotherapy
  • Issues around IPTp such as adherence to IPTp, effectiveness of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) and alternative drugs. This includes knowledge of providers, clinical decision making, prescribing, consumers and community behaviour, and client adherence to chemotherapy and chemoprevention.
  • The role and the use of rapid diagnostic test (RDT) by providers in improving diagnosis and treatment of malaria in the general population in different endemic settings
  • Drug supply management and other issues that relate to provision, equitable access and use of malaria chemotherapy and chemoprevention at the individual health provider level
  • Provider interventions to improve provision and use of malaria medicines such as ACTs

5 - CONSUMERS, PATIENTS AND COMMUNITY SYSTEMS 

The session will deal with issues of access and utilization of appropriate chemotherapy and chemoprevention of malaria by consumers. It will address: 

  • Equity in access and utilization of appropriate chemotherapy and chemoprevention of malaria by consumers
  • Costs and cost-containment of antimalarials and treatment at the individual consumer/client level
  • Issues related to patient adherence to malaria medicines (ACTs and chemoprophylaxis in pregnancy)
  • Interventions that have been used to improve consumption of chemotherapy and chemoprevention
  • Roles of community-health workers and usefulness and future of community-directed interventions (CDI) in delivery of malaria chemotherapy and chemoprevention