Malaria Knowledge Programme (MKP): Improving the quality of ma-
laria diagnosis and laboratory services
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Dear colleagues,
Improving laboratory services and promoting the accurate diagno-
sis of malaria at community level will save lives and prevent
wastage of valuable resources. Increasing levels of resistance
to cheap, first-line antimalarials means that many malaria en-
demic countries must promote new, more expensive treatment in
the form of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs). Con-
sequently, in resource poor countries, it is not financially
sustainable to treat all fever cases as malaria, and so the need
for improved diagnostic tools that can be used at community
level has never been greater.
The Malaria Knowledge Programme at the Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine has been working in Malawi and Ghana to in-
crease the effectiveness of laboratory systems and diagnostics
for malaria and other common health problems.
Improving the quality of malaria diagnosis and laboratory ser-
vices in resource-poor countries is a policy paper produced by
MKP which documents key findings and makes recommendations:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/lstm/majorprogs/malaria/documents/Labdiagnosis.pdf
The Malaria Knowledge Programme at the Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine has been working to transform people's vulner-
ability to malaria into resilience. The primary focus of re-
search has been on vulnerability, gender, community based ini-
tiatives, diagnostics and laboratory services, vector control
and urban malaria. Other policy briefing papers can be found at
http://www.liv.ac.uk/lstm/majorprogs/malaria/outputs.htm
A printed copy of this or any other MKP policy brief can be ob-
tained by contacting Alison Dunn mailto:mkp@healthlink.org.uk
Alison Dunn
Research Officer - Exchange/Healthlink Worldwide
56-64 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4JX
Tel: +44-207-549-0250
Fax: +44-207-549-0241
mailto:dunn.a@healthlink.org.uk
Healthlink Worldwide http://www.healthcomms.org is working with
The Malaria Knowledge Programme at the Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine to communicate and disseminate research find-
ings. All MKP outputs can be found at
http://www.liv.ac.uk/lstm/majorprogs/malaria/outputs.htm