INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
The WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN)
 
The WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN) established its Asia Regional Centre at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine in March 2010. Although its collaboration with the Faculty is new, WWARN is privileged to have the opportunity to build on the established and productive relationship between the Universities of Oxford and Mahidol and drawon the depth of research expertise in malaria within the Faculty.  We would like to thank the Mahidol Faculty of Tropical Medicine and its Office of International Cooperation for supporting the establishment of this Regional Centre.





WWARN was founded in 2006 by a group of malaria scientists from over 50 institutions around the world, who recognized the need for a comprehensive, global surveillance system to provide early warning of the spread of drug resistant malaria parasites to vulnerable populations, particularly in Asia and Africa. Our aim is to improve the quality of collected data so that the extent of artemisinin resistance can be determined accurately, its spread tracked and containment efforts can be informed in a timely fashion and adapted by policymakers. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and working in collaboration with the World Health Organization, WWARN has developed a web-based platform to enable scientists and researchers from malaria endemic countries to share information with each other as well as with colleagues at research institutions and government ministries worldwide.



The collaboration between WWARN and the Faculty of Tropical Medicine comes at a crucial point in time. Although malaria rates have been dropping in South East Asia since the development of the powerful artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), scientists are becoming increasingly concerned by reports of emerging drug-resistance in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite population along the Thai-Cambodia and Thai-Myanmar borders. Collecting and disseminating up-to-date information has never been more urgent. Our Regional Centre at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine will play a vital role in this, and forms the blueprint for the new WWARN East Africa and West Africa Regional Centres in Nairobi, Kenya and Dakar, Senegal.
 
Last updated: April 4, 2013
 
 
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