Prevention is better than cure - Malaria & planetary health on 30th November 2022

According to the latest world malaria report, there were 241 million cases of malaria of which 627,000 were fatal in 2020. In total, 95% of all cases and 96% of all deaths from malaria occur in the African region with children under 5 accounting for ~80% of all malaria deaths in the region.      

This session aimed to underline that “Prevention is better than cure”, whilst acknowledging that implementation of prevention activities can be more challenging than providing well-known treatment options. Some activities considered were vector control, Intermittent preventive treatment in infancy/ childhood (IPTi/IPTc), Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC), and the malaria vaccine. The session steered discussion and debate around implementation challenges and focused our attention on effective and efficient implementation strategies that consider the contextual and seasonal variations seen across MSF project locations.  

Chairperson: introduction – Saschveen Singh, MSF Malaria and ID advisor

Malaria in children - Dr. Quique Bassat, IS Global

MSF project testimony: IPTi – Batangafo, Central African Republic & MSF project testimony: vector control – Angumu, Democratic Republic of Congo

SMC in Burkina Faso: National roll out and combining strategies – Dr Paul Sondo, Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS)/ Unité de Recherche Clinique de Nanoro (URCN)

Panel discussion with invited guests: Moderator – Saschveen Singh Invited speakers – Quique Bassat; Paul Sondo MSF Malaria Advisor – Letizia Di Stefano MSF Operational representative – Mitchell Sangma MSF entomology representative – Arnaud Desjardins and Chairperson: wrap-up and key messages – Saschveen Singh

Find all the other agenda items on Day 2: Prevention is better than cure: malaria & planetary health on Youtube:

Keynote speaker: Climate change and global child health – Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta, Centre for Global Child Health

Gabriele Rossi - Oral presentation "PREDICTORS OF WASTING BY THE AGE OF 1 YEAR AMONG INFANTS UNDER 6 MONTHS ENROLLED IN A MAMI PROGRAM IN COX’S BAZAR REFUGEE CAMP" and Q&A with event moderator Johanna Thomson

Marta Iscla - Oral presentation "MSF FIELD SIMULATION – INCORPORATING SIMULATION INTO THE PLANDO-STUDY-ACT CYCLE FOR AN INTEGRATIVE IMPROVEMENT OF THE OPD TRIAGE SYSTEM, PULKA, NIGERIA" and Q&A with event moderator Johanna Thomson

Kévin Lasmi - Oral presentation "IMPLEMENTATION QUALITY OF SEASONAL MALARIA CHEMOPREVENTION: A QUALITATIVE STUDY EXPLORING THE PERSPECTIVES OF CAREGIVERS AND COMMUNITY DISTRIBUTORS IN BURKINA FASO AND CHAD" and Q&A with event moderator Johanna Thomson

Emilie Lauressergues - Oral presentation "ACCEPTABILITÉ, PERFORMANCES DIAGNOSTIQUES ET FAISABILITÉ DU DÉPISTAGE NÉONATAL DE LA DRÉPANOCYTOSE À L'AIDE DE DEUX TESTS DE DIAGNOSTIC RAPIDE:"SICKLESCAN®" ET "HEMOTYPESC™"" and Q&A with event moderator Johanna Thomson

Live demo: e-rounds – Edward Chu, Berlin Medical Unit, MSF

Creating partnerships to improve care: Sickle cell disease

PaED talk: “Time for action: Climate change in the humanitarian sector” –Dr. Rita Issa