Malaria elimination featured in global disease control priorities project

The US launch of Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3), was held at the University of California, San Francisco today. The DCP3 is a comprehensive, nine-volume series that outlines the world’s most pressing health issues, ranging from infectious diseases to cancer to maternal and child health. It provides up-to-date evidence on the efficacy of existing strategies and tools, as well as extended cost effectiveness analyses. Last updated in 2006, this most recent edition of the DCP includes for the first time a chapter on malaria elimination and eradication. This chapter, which summarizes the most recent thinking on malaria elimination, was authored by UCSF researchers.

The inclusion of malaria elimination and eradication in the DCP is notable, and reflects both the dramatic progress achieved in the malaria fight since 2006 and a significant increase in the number of countries working to end transmission of the disease altogether. The chapter provides an overview of current malaria epidemiology, interventions, and challenges, as well as empirical information on financing and economics, including cost information from various settings. It concludes with a discussion of the economic basis for eradication and recommendations for additional research.

Lead author and UCSF researcher Rima Shretta said, “Everything you need to know about malaria elimination is in the chapter. It’s comprehensive; I don’t think there’s any other reference out there like it.”

Holding the US launch at UCSF is meaningful, says Sir Richard Feachem, Director of the UCSF Global Health Group and founder of UCSF’s Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). “This university has played a leading role in driving malaria elimination, both through building global consensus and by helping countries and regions to achieve freedom from malaria.”

The MEI continues to advance the policy and practice of malaria elimination through its high-impact work at global, regional and country levels.

The launch of DCP3 featured UCSF Emeritus Professor Dr. Dean Jamison, the architect and leader of DCP3. Allison Phillips, the Deputy Director of MEI, presented the malaria findings. The launch formed part of UCSF’s Institute for Global Health Sciences symposium “A New Era of Impact in Global Health”, in which UCSF leaders discussed new priorities for academic global health and how the university is responding to those challenges.

The European launch of the DCP3 series was in held London in early December, with keynote addresses from Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet and World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus. The next launch is scheduled for Mexico on February 21, 2018.