7 November 2019, Hanoi, Vietnam.

IVCC has published the results of three landscape studies it commissioned as part of its 5-year $18.75 million grant from the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security through Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

The reports, which will provide the platform for a series of bespoke product intervention strategies, aim to address the growing threat of vector-borne diseases in the region by providing a comprehensive analysis of the technical, regulatory and market access environment for vector control in the region.

The studies found that while there is a wide range of malaria and other disease transmission ecologies – stretching from South Asia through to the Pacific Islands – several common themes emerged including:

• Outdoor transmission is a key challenge necessitating innovation and access to vector control tools for outdoor protection.
• Despite a lack of insecticide resistance data in many parts of the region, insecticide resistance among dominant Anopheles vectors is widespread in South Asia, and there are indications that pyrethroid resistance is increasing in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), an area also confronting multi-drug-resistant parasites. Limited testing in PNG indicates that pyrethroid susceptibility remains high.
• Most national programmes rely almost exclusively on the mass distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs), apart from Pakistan and India, which implement wide-scale indoor residual spraying (IRS).
• Aedes-borne diseases are on the rise as Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus populations continue to proliferate with increasing occurrences of dengue outbreaks and often inadequate diagnostic capacity to detect chikungunya and Zika viruses.
• There are some countries with relatively strong Aedes control programmes, but most lack capacity, accessible and effective surveillance and control options.
  Insecticide resistance among Aedes, both pyrethroid adulticides and temephos (organophosphate) larvicide, is very severe in some countries.
• Capacity for emergency response and implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR) for health security varies significantly, with most countries lacking adequate tools and resources.

IVCC is uniquely positioned to address these challenges in collaboration with national programmes and research, implementation and industry partners. Potential solutions fit into IVCC’s integrated vector management (IVM) portfolio of work, because rather than a single product, it is likely to be an integrated package of tools and approaches that, driven by improved, high-quality data and implementation, can sustainably reduce mosquito-borne diseases in the region.

Robin Davies, Head of Australia’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, said: “Vector control interventions have proven to be highly effective in reducing malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses. Continued innovation in vector control, led by IVCC, will be critical to further driving down the burden of vector-borne disease across our region and globally.”

Nick Hamon, CEO of IVCC added; “IVCC has a wealth of experience and expertise in delivering impactful innovative vector control solutions across sub-Saharan Africa. By tapping into this knowledge and expertise we are well placed to transfer our knowledge and learning to deliver a toolbox of relevant vector control solutions fit for the Indo-Pacific region.”

Notes

The reports were launched during a workshop of regulators from across Asia-Pacific focused on best practices and challenges related to the registration and regulation of vector control products. The workshop was convened as part of the Vector Control Platform in Asia Pacific (VCAP), an initiative led by the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) and Unitaid to address policy barriers to vector control.

The technical landscape was undertaken by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Malaria

Elimination Initiative, the regulatory landscape by the consultant John Paul Vasanthan and the Market Access Landscape by FutureBridge.

Conducted between September 2018 and May 2019, the studies comprised of a desk review of 19 countries and in-depth consultations and interviews with governments and partners in the focus countries of Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Vietnam.

IVCC had a strong presence at this years’ Pan African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA) conference held in Yaoundé, Cameroon in September.  Derric Nimmo, Technical Manager IVCC, Allison Tatarsky, University of California, San Francisco, Malaria Elimination Initiative and RBM VCWG New Tools, New Challenges and Fredros Okumu from the Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania, co-organised a symposium entitled ‘Vector Control Innovations to drive progress in malaria and other mosquito borne disease control’ with an outstanding list of speakers to support the symposium.

The symposium delivered the latest research on an ever-expanding toolbox of vector control tools and approaches and disseminated important findings to the PAMCA membership and wider malaria community to inform future research and implementation of vector control across the African continent.  It also made visible to national malaria programmes the diverse and high impact tools that can be integrated into countries’ vector control response now or in the future.  Topics covered in this symposium were of significant importance to malaria burden reduction and elimination efforts and the control of other mosquito-borne diseases.

IVCC was a sponsor of PAMCAs 6^th annual conference and exhibition

The session was co-chaired by Allison Tatarsky and Mercy Opiyo, Manica Health Research Centre, Mozambique, and ISGlobal, University of Barcelona.

Speakers at the symposium were:

Derric Nimmo, IVCC – Overview of the vector control pipeline and rational for an integrated vector management (IVM) response.

Ingrid Etoke, IVCC – The New New Nets project – project scale up and progress to date

Andrew Saibu, IVCC NgenIRS programme, and Richard Oxborough, Abt Associates– early results from PMI VectorLink rollout of 3^rd generation IRS insecticides, Fludora Fusion and SumiShield.

Silas Majambere, Mosquito Consulting – Precision larviciding with drone technology and new longer lasting larvicides for Aedes and Anopheles control

Eric Ochomo, KEMRI/CDC – Ivermectin: results from IVERMAL in Kenya

Lina Finda, IHI – Spatial repellents: community-wide effect of transfluthrin-treated eave ribbons

Under the conference theme, ‘Partnering for Impact’, IVCC hosted its first stakeholder conference in three years in its home town of Liverpool on 19^th September.   Ahead of the full day conference at Liverpool’s Town Hall, 150 guests were invited a very special pre-conference dinner at Liverpool’s iconic Anglican Cathedral where they were able to meet and network over dinner whilst being treated to a stunning performance from mezzo soprano Jennifer Johnston, artist in residence at Liverpool’s philharmonic orchestra.

IVCC was delighted to welcome Dr Ruth Shakespeare, former medical director of the Mulanjee Mission hospital in Malawi, as the keynote speaker.  Dr Ruth’s honest and very real testimony to the challenges of dealing with malaria on the ground grabbed everyone’s attention.  Dr Ruth spoke passionately how her hospital ward can become overrun with malaria cases if there is no adequate vector control support in the local area, often with more than seventy percent of hospital beds being filled with children suffering from serious cases of malaria.  However, Dr Ruth’s message was also one of real hope.  Following the introduction of next generation IRS in the area, malaria cases have fallen dramatically.  Moreover, Dr Ruth has shown how the mission hospital approach can be a model for how future IRS and other vector control initiatives can be efficiently and effectively rolled out across local community settings.   (A full copy of Dr Ruth’s speech can be found here)

IVCC’s programme for the day was filled with a series of panel discussions and presentations from a range of distinguished guests drawn from all corners of the malaria community, including funders, industry, academia and regulators.  As well as valuable networking time, attendees were also able to view an extensive scientific poster programme as well as see a demonstration of new ‘smart-lite’ IRS spray technology from Goizper.

A series of inspiring and thought-provoking sessions ensured that key challenges were discussed and debated and and where achievements had been made, they were appropriately recognised.  IVCC would like to thank all participants for making our Stakeholder conference a highly engaging and successful event.

Malaria research and development will be boosted by a new £1billion fund, the Ross Fund, backed by Britain’s aid budget and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) that was announced yesterday (November 22, 2015).

Announcing the fund Chancellor George Osborne said he had been committed to the fight against malaria since 1997. ‘A staggering one billion people are infected with malaria and 500,000 children die from the parasite each year,’ he said. ‘Our commitment means Britain can continue to play its part in the fight against malaria and working with the BMGF will help us in our joint ambition to see an end to this global disease in our lifetimes.’

The UK Department for International Development (DfID) has a long track record of effective overseas aid and has a particular reason to be proud through its support for the development of new anti-malarial insecticides. These are an essential element of the bednets and indoor residual spraying which, according to a recent report from Oxford University, has been responsibly for vector control was responsible for about 80% of the overall decline in infection prevalence across the continent since 2000 (read the full report) and (a summary of the report).

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said there was reason to be proud of Britain’s contribution to the fight against deadly diseases across the world, and especially malaria, which costs African economies about £8billion every year. ‘A healthy prosperous world is in Britain’s interest and the prevention of deadly diseases is a smart investment,’ she said. ‘That is why working with the BMGF through the Ross Fund, the UK will tackle resistance and develop drugs or insecticides to bring an end to this terrible disease.’

No new public health insecticide has been developed in over 30 years, and with all the current insecticides now compromised by insecticide resistance, the work IVCC is doing with the support of BMGF and DfID is essential to the malaria battle. Since IVCC began in 2000 we have made considerable progress, and expect to have several new anti-malarial insecticides in the field by 2020 for use in bednets and indoor residual spraying. Their use will make insecticide resistance much more difficult to develop in the future. It is a very tangible return on investment by both UK international aid and the BMGF that is already producing practical results that will change the world for the better.

IVCC, a UK based charity, is the only organisation in the world developing new public health insecticides. Our public-private partnership has worked well over the past 10 years, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK, US, and Swiss governments, and from our industry partners.