From the Heart of Africa, a Message for World Malaria Day

Have you ever had malaria? Why did you decide to study it? What lessons have we learned – or not- in the fight against the disease? These are some of the questions we asked our ISGlobal team that attended the Keystone Symposia meeting “Malaria: from Innovation to Eradication”, organized in collaboration with MESA last February in Uganda.

The event, which took place on the shores of the impressive Lake Victoria, brought together researchers, experts and students from all over the world (including many from the region) that are working in the lab and on the ground to pave the way towards a malaria-free world. During the five-day meeting, they shared results and experiences on parasite biology, mosquito control, vaccine candidates, drugs and drug resistance, and- most importantly- how to combine what we already know to optimize results depending on the local context.

Over those five days, Anna Oje (MESA project assistant) and I had the opportunity to interview more than 30 participants, from principal investigators and experts to students from all over the world. It was an enriching and fun experience, where the interviewees shared with us their vision on malaria elimination as well as more personal moments and situations.

This is the video that we made to celebrate World Malaria Day 2017, based on the interviews conducted with the ISGlobal team members that were in Uganda and kindly accepted to collaborate. Some of them are working towards malaria elimination in Southern Mozambique in the context of MALTEM, a project supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and in collaboration with CISM

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Many thanks to the interviewees for their time, to Kate Whitfield and Anna Oje from MESA for making the filming possible, to Nick Dua, director of digital media of Keystone Symposia for the logistical support in situ, to Beatriz Fiestas for help in selecting the content, to Matiana González for valuable advice, and last but not least, to Aleix Cabrera for the video editing.

Note:

A panel discussion with the scientific organizers, also filmed during the meeting, will be broadcasted with a live questions and answers session next June. We will keep you updated for further information.