The third World Malaria Day at the weekend has been marked with the launch of the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN) Fellowship Program.
The APMEN network involving 10 countries was founded through the leadership of the School of Population Health, The University of Queensland; University of California San Francisco Global Health Group; and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.
The new APMEN Fellowship Program aims to help to equip the next generation of leaders and health workers from the Asia Pacific region with the tools and training to guide malaria elimination in the critical coming decades.
The Fellowships will strengthen the exchanges and lesson sharing between APMEN Country Malaria Control Programs and research institutions in the region.
APMEN Fellowships will assist in the development of new measures to fight malaria. They will work towards developing systematic ways to translate the enormous wealth of basic information concerning the parasites and mosquito vectors into effective strategies for controlling and eliminating malaria, and thereby saving millions of lives.
According to the World Malaria Report 2009 there were 243 million people suffering from malaria in 2008 and nearly 863,000 thousand people died as a result of the disease. Outside Africa, about 67 per cent of malaria cases are believed to occur in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2009 the Australian Government via its international aid program AusAID, made a commitment for the elimination of malaria in the Asia Pacific region of nearly $7 million for ongoing support to the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network which compliments broader support for malaria control and elimination.
Further information regarding the APMEN Fellows Program can be viewed at www.apmen.org
About the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network
The Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN) was established in 2009 to bring attention and support to the under-appreciated and little-known work of malaria elimination in Asia Pacific.
APMEN is composed of 10 founding Asia Pacific countries (Bhutan, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and Vanuatu) that are pursuing malaria elimination, as well leaders and experts from key multilateral and academic agencies.
For further information please contact Arna Chancellor apmen@sph.uq.edu.au.
