Ifakara Masterclass Edition 20- A Thousand Lives a Day: A MasterClass with Profs. Pedro Alonso, Patrick Kachur & Elizabeth Juma.

A Thousand Lives a Day

The 20th edition of the masterclass hosted by Fredros Okumu from Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) and Sheila Ogoma from Clinton Health Access Initiative(CHAI) features Profs. Pedro Alonso, Patrick Kachur & Elizabeth Juma.

The talk begins with discussion about the title of the masterclass “A thousand lives a day” and whether a thousand lives lost to malaria every day is taken seriously or not and if malaria is still a neglected disease. It is highlighted looking at death every 45 seconds in the past, improvement has been made in Sub-Saharan Africa but advocacy is indeed necessary as the deaths are not acceptable and malaria needs to be kept high on the agenda still to minimize these deaths which are entirely preventable. Key messages from the World Malaria Report 2020 is summarized along with lessons to be taken from it. The fact that guidance on malaria transmission and control is adequate but optimal operationalization being inadequate is highlighted as operationalization faces many challanges from the environment where it is being carried out. Sub-national stratification of malaria risk in mainland Tanzania which is a simplified assembly of survey and routine data is lauded and necessicity of taking lessons from it by other countries is encouraged. Other topics of discussion in brief were balancing malaria case management and vector control in areas with different epidemiological settings, essential updates on drugs, diagnostics, vaccines and vector control, building essential careers and leadership malaria control in endemic countries and financing for malaria control and R&D amongst other topics.