On June 19, 2024, members of the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) team were warmly welcomed by the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) at its Bagamoyo branch office in Kingani. The visit included the unveiling of a commemorative plaque celebrating the ‘Accelerate to Eliminate Malaria Program’, a five-year collaborative agreement funded by USAID, at the Bagamoyo facility.

The Vector Control Product Testing Unit (VCPTU), a critical research facility within IHI, is internationally recognized for its high-quality evaluations of new vector control products. The site plays a vital role in vector control product testing for industry and regulatory bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO) Prequalification, as well as extensive collaborations with academia.

During the visit, Dr. Ally Olotu, Director of Science at Ifakara, along with Jason Moore, Test Facility Manager, and the VCPTU team, warmly received the IVCC delegation. The event marked both advancements in infrastructure and the collaborative spirit that propels progress in vector control research. It included presentations by the IHI VCPTU team on projects supported by IVCC, alongside discussions on safeguarding standards, equity, diversity, and gender policies.

IVCC’s collaboration with IHI and VCPTU is long-standing, both on infrastructure and capacity building initiatives, in addition to research collaborations. IVCC has previously supported IHI towards GLP certification with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. By assisting institutions like IHI secure Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) certification, IVCC ensures that local research facilities can meet international standards, thereby enhancing their ability to conduct critical research and testing. This support not only advances scientific capabilities but also empowers local communities to take a leading role in combating vector-borne diseases.

During the visit, Dr. Small expressed optimism about future collaborations, stating, “Driven by values of partnership, innovation, and respect, IVCC is committed to building lasting partnerships that deliver life-saving solutions. Our partnership with IHI demonstrates the significant impact we can achieve together.”

Dr. Olotu also acknowledged IVCC’s invaluable support, emphasizing the importance of the funding for IHI’s ongoing product testing activities at the Vector Control Product Testing Unit. This collaboration continues to drive forward our shared mission to eliminate malaria and other vector-borne diseases.

This visit to IHI  by the IVCC delegation was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this story are the responsibility of IVCC and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

We are proud to announce the unveiling of a commemorative plaque for the “Accelerate to Eliminate Malaria Program,” a five-year cooperative agreement funded by USAID and implemented by IVCC. Senior Technical Manager Graham Small and Communications Manager Laura Roberts Artal recently visited the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS), a long-term research partner, to mark this significant milestone.

The first day of the visit was marked by a tour of the CSRS insectary and laboratory in Abidjan, where the IVCC delegation was introduced to the cutting-edge research being conducted at the facility. The Global Laboratory Practices (GLP) team presented their latest findings on research projects funded by IVCC. These presentations highlighted the advancements and impact of their work in the fight against malaria. The discussions also covered safeguarding standards, equity, diversity, and gender policies, and underscored the crucial role of effective communication in organizational success.

The visit continued with a two-day workshop in Tiassalé, the village where CSRS conduct non-clinical studies to evaluate vector control tools. These studies, including semi-field and small-scale field trials, are conducted to establish how effective a new vector control product is at controlling mosquitoes in endemic settings.

The workshop aimed to engage local Tiassalé authorities and community members, emphasizing the importance of the research carried out by CSRS in Tiassalé. The discussions focused on how these research activities have contributed to reducing malaria transmission rates by targeting the disease vectors.

Throughout the visit, the IVCC team had the opportunity to engage with community leaders and local stakeholders, fostering a collaborative environment to further the goals of the “Accelerate to Eliminate Malaria Program.” This interaction not only highlighted the success of the research initiatives but also demonstrated the essential partnership between IVCC and CSRS in advancing malaria prevention efforts.

This visit and the unveiling of the plaque symbolize a shared commitment to innovative research and community engagement, essential components in the ongoing battle to eliminate malaria.

For more about this event visit:

• TV coverage from NCI – La Nouvelle Chaîne Ivoirienne.
• CSRS news story
• Day by day LinkedIn coverage by CSRS (Day 1, Day 2 and 3)

This visit to CSRS by the IVCC delegation and the community event at Tiassalé was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this story are the responsibility of IVCC and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Photography credit: A.A.Kone, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS)

IVCC is excited to share the news that two more of our collaborating trials facilities in Africa have been granted Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) certification by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS): the Institut Pierre Richet Vector Control Product Evaluation Centre (IPR VCPEC) in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire; and the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Amani Research Centre in Muheza, Tanzania.

IVCC has supported both facilities towards GLP certification with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, including support for infrastructure improvements required for GLP compliance.

The NIMR Amani Test Facility is now the first Public Test Facility in the East African region to achieve GLP certification for vector control product evaluations.

Dr William Kisinza, Director & Chief Research Scientist at the NIMR Amani Research Centre, also said: “The work required for GLP certification wasn’t an easy process.  As a team, we have worked hard over the past seven years and are very proud of this achievement.  We are also grateful for the support and guidance provided by IVCC through this process. Our team at NIMR is very proud of being part of a larger network of collaborating trial facilities in Africa that can generate testing data on vector control products of the highest standard

NIMR Amani Research Centre has state-of-the-art laboratories and other research facilities for laboratory and semi-field trials on various vector control tools, including insecticides and insecticide-treated fabrics, used in the control of disease vectors.  The Centre currently operates 13 suites of experimental huts and 2 platforms for semi-field trials. Other experimental facilities include a set of three large semi-field structures (Mosquito Spheres), animal houses, a set of insectaries, an Insecticides Testing Facility (ITF), Molecular biology Laboratory, General/Parasitology Laboratories and Data Management and information and communications technology (ICT) Units. The Centre has conducted several community-based randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on major health interventions including long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) trials.

Dr Raphael N’Guessan, Head of the IPR VCPEC facility, said: “We are very happy, after so much work, to have achieved our GLP certification. We are very grateful to IVCC for its support, and especially to Alex Wright who pushed and assisted us in every way”.

IPR’s research focuses on vector-borne diseases and neglected tropical diseases. VCPEC was established as a unit within IPR to evaluate the efficacy of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and other vector control tools. VCPEC has been involved in a project to evaluate a novel house-based malaria vector control intervention called the ‘eave tube’, which combines modifications to make a house more ‘mosquito-proof’ with an innovative way of delivering insecticidal active ingredients. Eave tubes, in combination with screening of windows and doors, were found to reduce malaria transmission in a community-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in central Côte d’Ivoire between 2016 and 2019. We look forward to working with the companies to deliver high quality data on the efficacy of novel vector control products in line with the WHO pre-qualification requirements”.

Pictured are the main IPR VCPEC building, which houses insecticide spraying, insecticide testing rooms and molecular biology rooms, and the molecular biology and insecticide testing buildings at NIMR Amani Research Centre.

IVCC has great pleasure in announcing that the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS) trials facility has been granted Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) certification by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) in June 2023.

Based in the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, Abidjan, the CSRS facility is a longstanding collaborating partner of IVCC. CSRS help IVCC and our industry partners to evaluate new malaria vector control products by conducting studies against local resistant mosquito populations in the environments where they will actually be used. They have also generated product efficacy data for manufacturers for regulatory submissions, including WHO Prequalification Unit Vector Control Product Assessment Team (PQT/VCP) dossier submissions.

IVCC has supported the CSRS trials facility towards GLP certification with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This included support for the essential infrastructure improvements and equipment purchases necessary for full GLP compliance. Pictured is CSRS’s new field trials facility, built at their experimental hut site in Tiassalé. In addition to this, training was provided to key facility staff through participation in GLP workshops and specialist courses. IVCC’s support has also helped further strengthen the capacity for malaria vector control research at CSRS.

Professor Benjamin Koudou, CSRS Director of Research and Development, said: “This tremendous achievement by the team will be key for CSRS visibility within Côte d’Ivoire and abroad. The GLP certification of our facility will help further build the trust that companies, malaria control implementation programmes and other organisations have in our research. We anticipate that this will increase the demand at CSRS for conducting laboratory and field trials in conjunction with the control of malaria and neglected tropical diseases. We are planning now to implement the same quality management facility in our molecular biology laboratory.”

IVCC congratulates Professor Inza Koné (test facility manager), Professor Koudou, Dr Edi Constant (Coordinator of GLP facility), Lisro Emmanuelle (CSRS quality manager), Laurence Yao (GLP Project manager), and all the facility staff on this significant achievement.

Recent entomological field results from Project BITE under IVCC’s Indo-Pacific Initiative (IPI) have shown that forest packs containing bite prevention tools offer significant protection from landing mosquitoes. The results come from trials that UCSF-MEI, IVCC’s lead partner on BITE, conducted in Mondulkiri province, Cambodia, with the local non-profit Health Forefront Organization.

The entomological trials were conducted in an area directly adjacent to forest and was comprised of 7 temporary shelters designed to mimic short-term dwellings used by people when working or travelling in the forest. Inside each shelter, one of the bite prevention tools, or a combination of all tools, or a control, were used while volunteers collected mosquitoes via Human Landing Catches (HLC) over a 12-hour period.

Over 49 nights of collections, the entomological field study demonstrated that all products – both on their own and in combination – are highly efficacious at preventing mosquitoes from landing. In fact, all products and combinations reduced mosquito landings by at least 60% compared to the control, while the spatial repellent alone and the combination of all products reduced landings by approximately 95%.

Project BITE aims to evaluate the effectiveness of forest packs containing a spatial emanator, topical repellent, and insecticide-treated clothing when deployed to forest dwellers, goers, and rangers in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Semi-field trials completed in Thailand in 2021 demonstrated that bite prevention tools not only prevent mosquitoes from landing but can also kill and delay host-seeking.

Following the entomological field studies, Project BITE is currently planning on how best to scale-up use of these tools and further evaluate their epidemiological impact, acceptability, use and cost-effectiveness among high-risk forest-exposed populations.

IVCC and its partners are hopeful that the evidence generated by BITE will help make the case to national programmes and donors on the effectiveness of bite prevention tools delivered in forest packs in the fight against outdoor malaria transmission.