Medical Care Development of Malaria

Allison Tatarsky^*
*Correspondence: Allison Tatarsky, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA, Email:

Editorial

Medical Care Development International has been working to scale back and eventually eliminate the burden of malaria for nearly 40 years. In 2015, there have been 212 million new cases of malaria and 429,000 deaths. MCDI’s add prevention through vector control, intermittent preventive therapy in pregnancy, malaria vaccines, malaria diagnostics, case management, monitoring, evaluation and surveillance has helped to significantly reduce the burden of malaria in populations served by MCDI-supported work.

Medical Care Development International is a leading expert in integrated vector control, with experience in various malaria-endemic countries through multiple intervention methods. Medical Care Development International is integrated vector control work has helped to significantly reduce the prevalence of malaria infection and incidence of malaria cases in beneficiary populations by dramatically suppressing transmission through reductions in vector abundance, infectivity, and human blood-feeding contact.

MCDI works to enhance the supply of Intermittent Preventative Treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) as a part of antenatal care services in several countries MCDI has programs. Most recently, MCDI provided extensive support to the National Malaria Control Programs and Ministries of Health in Benin and Equatorial Guinea to strengthen and increase coverage of IPTp. MCDI was a core implementing partner of the Equatorial Guinea Malaria Vaccine Initiative (EGMVI), conducting clinical trials of Sanaria Inc.'s whole sporozoite Plasmodium falciparum malaria vaccine candidate (PfSPZ). Sanaria's objective is to develop a PfSPZ vaccine that confers at least 80%protective efficacy for at least 6 months.

MCDI has assumed a technical leadership role in malaria diagnostics internationally. MCDI has helped the planet Health Organization in setting global standards for diagnostics, and may be a key innovator in developing, testing and deploying systems to coach and supply supportive supervision to laboratory and clinical staff on proper diagnosis of malaria. In addition to providing technical and operational support to varied countries through bilateral agreements, MCDI was the prime contractor under the USAID-PMI centrally funded Improving Malaria Diagnostics (IMaD) project from 2007- 2012, and was the lead technical sub-contractor for malaria diagnostics under the follow-on Malaria Care project, with MCDI operating in 12 countries.

MCDI's goal is to assist eliminate malaria from endemic settings and ultimately to assist eradicate malaria globally. The Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project (BIMEP) is meant to mix mass malaria vaccination with malaria control interventions to eliminate malaria on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. MCDI also supports the event of ordinary operating procedures, policies and guidelines for elimination. MCDI's elimination-related strategies include data analysis to deploy stratified and targeted interventions that respond most cost-effectively to local transmission contexts, and therefore the deployment of mass screening and treatment campaigns. Quantitative PCR has also been used within the Bioko Island Malaria Control Program since 2004 for entomological monitoring purposes (i.e. for species identification, sporozoite analyses, and detection of markers for resistance to insecticides).