Intro
The WHO Global Technical Strategy (GTS) aims to achieve malaria elimination in at least 35 countries by 2030. Many countries close to that target are now considering how to tackle their vivax burden as it becomes the more dominant species in many countries. With limited emphasis on elimination of vivax malaria in the GTS, there is a significant gap in our understanding of what stakeholders’ current priorities are to achieve vivax elimination.
Methods
We used a Theory of Change (TOC) framework to systematically identify key research and implementation questions that, if left unaddressed, could prevent countries from achieving their 2030 elimination goals. Through a series of online workshops - participants from National Malaria Programs and other stakeholders were asked to consider and rank questions. A ranking index was created that was calculated by multiplying the number of times a question was ranked by the average rank score.
Results
At the time of submission, 87 participants from 12 Asia Pacific countries in different stages of control, elimination or Prevention of Re-establishment have completed ranking. Most participants were from National Malaria Programs (29/87), Civil Society Organisations (24/87), PAVE (17/87) and others (17/87) including independent experts, financing partners, private sector and other government departments.
Results include the highest overall priorities, and those by region, stakeholder and category. This allows for comparison of how different stakeholders may perceive different priorities when aiming for vivax elimination. Finally, the results provide a roadmap of key issues, including stakeholder knowledge gaps, that need to be addressed to move more quickly to malaria elimination.
Conclusions
This is one of the first exercises to understand priorities that need to be addressed to achieve vivax elimination and enable countries to progress the final kilometre to malaria elimination.