Achi news desk-
ISLAMABAD: In view of its wealth of data and expertise, Pakistan has been selected to lead the International Exchange Program Anopheles stephensi Africa – South Asia Familiarization Programme.
The Directorate of Malaria Control (DoMC), Ministry of National Health Services has been selected for the exchange program where it will conduct a training and capacity building program from nine African countries for Anopheles stephensi surveillance and control, said a senior DoMC official .
He said, “As you know that south-Asia and parts of the Middle East have historically been endemic to Anopheles stephensi an efficient vector of malaria which has gained notoriety due to its spread to several African countries since 2013, especially in Djibouti, Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia and Sudan.”
He added that the biggest threat posed by this range expansion was that this mosquito was able to thrive in urban environments, representing a paradigm shift in malaria epidemiology from being a predominantly rural disease in Africa to also infecting millions of city dwellers across Africa. .
However, based on decades of experience in surveillance and control of this mosquito, India and Pakistan were asked to share their experience with malaria control colleagues in Africa offering a great benefit to control programs in Africa to improve preparedness and rapid response activities.
“Pakistan also has highly developed management practices, research capability and also operational research infrastructure facilities. A number of selected high-level influential candidates from affected African countries will visit Pakistan to learn from Pakistan’s vast experience and foster partnerships to collaborate in research, surveillance and control for mutual benefit,” said a DoMC official.
He emphasized that this visit would be an initial pilot event as a foundation to build on future changes with wider objectives and outputs, but crucial to set an example and start partnerships, and also important to show successful outputs and results that can be incentive for funding. partners to support future initiatives for multi-country efforts to curb the threat of Anopheles stephensi.
However, the Directorate of Malaria Control (DoMC) and the Department of Entomology Arid University (at the National Entomological Reference Laboratory) were also going to conduct a week-long international training course for Molecular Mosquito Identification by PCR in May, 2024.
The officer mentioned that the Directorate has received very impressive CVs from young and energetic entomologists from the country. However, it was only needed to improve their capacity and participation in vector surveillance and control.
“We are in the final stage of finalizing the four most suitable candidates from among the participants. As there is neck-to-neck competition among them, we are also trying to increase 2-3 more applicants from Pakistan through local funding sources. Inshallah the selected ones will be the pioneers who will receive this international training in Pakistan and will also be the most suitable candidates for more advance course abroad in the near future,” he added.
He added that the aspiring candidates had been informed that the program would run through PCR and DNA extraction from different species of mosquitoes and would keep them as representative samples from Pakistan, so the Directorate needed a very strong commitment by them for collecting and sending samples. of mosquitoes from their selected areas.
The candidates have been encouraged to start their assignment to collect and dispatch mosquitoes from their areas (regardless of identification), he said, adding, “During the course they will be trained for identification (both morphologically and by PCR). It is only because of this commitment that we need those dedicated and energetic candidates who are and will continue their work in the field of vector control and surveillance in their department”.
