30 March 2024 – Below we feature a compilation of headlines, scientific articles, and technical reports on innovations, R&D and elimination progress towards polio, malaria, onchocerciasis, and lymphatic filariasis. We will be publishing these updates bi-weekly and hope they are useful.

Vector Control

  • Insecticidal Paint: An Alternate Integrated Vector Management Strategy for Mosquito Control – Link
  • Evaluating the carnivorous efficacy of Utricularia aurea (Lamiales: Lentibulariaceae) on the larval stages of Anopheles stephensi, Culex quinquefasciatus, and Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae – Link
  • Comparison of different trapping methods to collect malaria vectors indoors and outdoors in western Kenya – Link
  • Cost-effectiveness of malaria vector control activities in Sudan – Link

Diagnostic testing and treatment

  • New treatment for relapsing malaria, tafenoquine rolled out in Brazil starting with the Yanomami indigenous people – Link

Data

  • The national distribution of lymphatic filariasis cases in Malawi using patient mapping and geostatistical modelling – Link
  • Possible potential spread of Anopheles stephensi, the Asian malaria vector – Link

Immunisation

  • Over 8.8 million children to be vaccinated in Polio outbreak response campaign – Link
  • Zimbabwe’s drive to vaccinate 4.6 million children polio – Link
  • Polio immunization campaigns: securing a brighter future for Yemeni children – Link
  • DOH rolls out routine immunization, bivalent oral polio vaccine vaccination – Link

Surveillance

  • Genomic malaria surveillance of antenatal care users detects reduced transmission following elimination interventions in Mozambique – Link

Elimination progress

  • Experts reflect on a decade of Wild Polio-Free Certification for the South-East Asia Region – Link
  • Community and health worker perspectives on malaria in Meghalaya, India: covering the last mile of elimination by 2030 – Link
  • Hispaniola makes strides against disfiguring disease – Link 

Outbreak

  • Circulating vaccine derived polio virus type 2 outbreak and response in Yemen, 2021–2022, a retrospective descriptive analysis – Link

Climate and Health

  • WHO launches new toolkit empowering health professionals to tackle climate change – Link
  • Amidst spreading infectious diseases and climate change, US FDA should renew its focus on neglected tropical diseases – Link

Other

  • Health ministers convene in pivotal year for polio eradication at the 10th meeting of the Regional Subcommittee on Polio Eradication and Outbreaks – Link
  • Prevalence of non-falciparum malaria infections among asymptomatic individuals in four regions of Mainland Tanzania – Link
  • Global Research Agenda on Knowledge Translation and Evidence-informed Policy-making – Link 
  • Envisioning an Africa free of Neglected Tropical Diseases – Link
  • Attributes of Anopheles gambiae swarms in South Central Uganda – Link
  • New trial to study how the human immune system adapts to ‘tolerate’ malaria parasites – Link
  • UNICEF Zimbabwe humanitarian situation report No. 3 (Polio Response) – 14 March 2024 – Link
  • Innovative approaches needed to overcome health system barriers in malaria vaccination – Link

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