Current Tools to Combat Malaria-with Special Focus on Plasmodium knowlesi – 2019: Complete Series

The MESA Correspondents are early career volunteers who bring you cutting-edge coverage from malaria conferences in real time. The summaries of the new learnings are shared online, expanding access to the event. The MESA Correspondents program is a collaboration between MESA and the conference organizers.

This report from the Current Tools to Combat Malaria-with Special Focus on Plasmodium knowlesi workshop, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March  4 – 8, 2019, is brought to you by the MESA Correspondents Lucas Low Van Lun. Senior editorial support has been facilitated by Indra Vythilingam (University of Malaya, Malaysia).

This workshop was conducted by the Department of Parasitology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, from 4-8 March 2019. It consisted of a series of lectures and practical sessions.

Countries in the region are working towards malaria elimination and Plasmodium knowlesi malaria is the predominant species affecting humans in Malaysia. All countries in Southeast Asia have reported cases of P. knowlesi. The Department of Parasitology of the University of Malaya is at the forefront of knowlesi malaria research and strives to share knowledge with other institutes and is always sensitive to global needs. Thus, participants attending this workshop gained valuable information and techniques that they can bring back and implement in their respective institutes and universities. It also served as a platform to interact with various research institutes and universities within the country as well as the region to foster collaboration on P. knowlesi.

The workshop had 20 participants from eight countries which are as follows: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The University of Malaya received support from APMEN and the MESA Alliance, hosted by ISGlobal.

Read the full series of reports from the 2019 conference.