Outreach Training and Supportive Supervision for Malaria Diagnostics

The National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) and the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) in Malawi realize that it is essential to deploy a comprehensive quality assurance program for malaria diagnosis and treatment, which includes use of microscopy and  mRDTs, for diagnosis and improved fever management based on diagnostic results.  In September 2010, the MOH, with support from the      Improving Malaria Diagnostics (IMaD)  Project, launched a quality assurance program that embraced both clinical and diagnostic aspects of malaria management by introducing the Outreach Training and Supportive Supervision (OTSS) program in 60 health facilities comprising 16 districts….MORE

Angola’s First WHO Malaria Microscopy Accreditation Course

On the week of September 13^th- 17^th, 2010, in close collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health and National Malaria Control Program, and with support from the USAID/PMI Mission of Angola, IMaD conducted the first ever Lusophone WHO Malaria Microscopy Accreditation Course (MMAC). Held in the capital, Luanda, twelve national expert microscopists participated in this exciting course designed to identify participant’s strengths and weaknesses in malaria microscopy….MORE

Integration and Capacity Building with BIMCP II

MCDI visit to training site in Mexico. In preparation for the training of the newly recruited officers, the outgoing and the incoming Deputy Project Managers visited the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública in México (INSP-México). The visit allowed MCDI to meet the INSP team, and visit both their training site in Cuernavaca and the site that will eventually be used for the student’s field work. The principal outcomes of the visit included:

• Review of student housing options and preliminary discussions on safety, health insurance and life insurance provisions, issues pertaining to the students’ general wellbeing (mentoring, cultural exchange, and sports), rules and responsibilities, and exposure to ample and practical field experiences.
• Finalization of pending operational issues prior to MCDI’s signature of the contract with the INSP-México.
• Assessment of classrooms, conference-rooms, libraries, laboratories; computer/internet facilities, cafeterias, sport facilities via visits to the INSP -México campuses in Cuernavaca and Mexico City.
• Visits to field sites where project activities will take place to become familiar with the situation on the ground.
• Information exchange on the planned visit by a team from the INSP to Equatorial Guinea.

Between August 9 and 15 2010, three lecturers from the INSP-México, Dr. Angel Francisco Betanzos Reyes (Lecturer-Program Coordinador), Dr. Armando Ulloa García (Lecturer, Entomology) and Dr. Jorge F. Méndez Galván (Lecturer-Researcher ), visited Equatorial Guinea. Some of the highlights of their visit included:

• An assessment of the local context via meetings, interviews and field observations including visits to hospitals, health centers and communities.

 

l-r: Jorge F. Mendez-Galvan, Denise L Harrison, Angel Francisco Betanzos Reyes, Leonor Ada, Armando Ulloa Garcia , Dr. Gloria Nseng, Victor Mba, Maria-Cecelia Engono, Raul Nguema, Dr. Martin Eka, Javier Nve

• Information exchange with MCDI program staffs from the BIMCP and the EGMCI on the Continent.
• Interviews with the 8 new NMCP personnel (students) and with MSBS authorities.
• Analysis of multiple documents, publications and data provided by MCDI and by the Director of the NMCP.

New NMCP officers visit MCDI offices in Silver Spring en route to Mexico. The eight new NMCP officers travelled to Silver Spring MD and Washington DC on August 30, 2010 for an intensive one week orientation prior to traveling on to Cuernavaca, Mexico. During this week the students visited the Marathon and MCDI Headquarters, the Embasssy of Equatorial Guinea, the Consulate of Mexico and the Capitol Hill office of US Senator from the State of Maine, Olyimpia Snowe. Following these initial visits MCDI organized a series of malaria-specific visits to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the President’s Malaria Initiative/USAID offices. In addition, the orientation program included a tour of historic sites in Washington. Highlights of the visits included:

• A memorable welcoming dinner hosted by Dr. Adel Chaouch, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Marathon Oil. The relevance of the training and the high expectations the country has for the trainees on their return to EG were underlined.
• A meeting with Her Excellency the Ambassador of EG in Washington, Ms. Purificacion Angue Ondo, to explain the seriousness of their training visit to Mexico and to ratify the student’s commitment to the Program through the signature of an agreement between the Ambassador and the students.
• A visit to Senator Snow’s office to expose the group from EG to the US Senate and the interest it has in global health, sharing with the Senator’s staff information about the BIMCP and the role that a Maine organization (MCD) plays in its success, and highlighting the support that MCDI gets from Marathon Oil in support of the project.

L-r: Martin Eka Ondo Mangue, Pablo Aguilar Alcalá, Javier Nve Adjaba E., Magdalena Serpa, Victor Mba Micha A., Raul Nguema Nkogo O., Excm. Purificación Angue O. Embajadora de GE en EUA , Teodosia Evuna Ayetebe, Maria C. Engono Nguema, Epifanio Bula Malest, Leonor Ada Okenve, Chris Schwabe, Adel Chaouch, Joseph Carter

• A presentations on the history, achievements and plans for the future of BIMCP I and II, with emphasis in the integration plan/empowerment of NMCP to manage and implement interventions and activities that are now being managed with extensive external technical assistance provided by the BIMCP.
• Presentations on the plans for training in Mexico including on the context, objectives; performance expectations, performance monitoring, communications, code of conduct, and the implications of not following rules, or maintaining an acceptable level of academic performance.
• Visit to PAHO and to USAID’s President’s Malaria Initiative to familiarize the students with the history and current state of malaria control in the Americas and Africa.

New NMCP officers travel to Mexico. The eight new NMCP officers travelled to Mexico on September 4 accompanied by Dr. Serpa, the BIMCP Deputy Program Manager. After settling into their housing and meeting the staffs of the INSP, they began classes on September 6. The first 3 months of the program will focus on general knowledge pertaining to public health and malaria control. This will be based on course work in Cuernavaca and Mexico City and short field visits.

Special focus on health, safety and security. MCDI has worked with the INSP and Marathon Oil to ensure that the health, safety and security concerns of the students is fully addressed. Each student has been enrolled in a private health insurance scheme that is being financed by the BIMCP and a detailed safety and security protocol and procedures have been put in place and reviewed with the students. Periodic reinforcement of these guidelines will be undertaken with the students as a preventive measure. Special arrangements have also been made for visits outside Cuernavaca in order to ensure that the safety and security of the students is assured. These procedures have been reviewed and approved by Marathon and the INSP.

IMaD End of Year 2010 Update

During 2010, IMaD expanded activities and is now operational in 13 countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa. To date, IMaD has trained over 1200 laboratory staff, clinicians and health workers in diagnosis of malaria, RDT usage, Outreach Training and Support Supervision training, and data entry and analysis. An additional 38 Ministry of Health were sponsored by IMaD to participate in the WHO External Competency Assessment for Malaria Microscopists. IMaD, in collaboration with the local Ministries of Health, has also launched national quality assurance programs in 7 countries covering over 600 health facilities.

The third IMaD Annual Planning Meeting was conducted from December 6 -10, 2010 in Silver Spring, Maryland.  Since IMaD began in 2007, IMaD staff and partners get together to review the year’s progress and way forward.  Every year, In Country Coordinators (ICCs) that help to implement the IMaD programs in their respective countries attended.  ICCs  from Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, and Zambia as well as partners from AMREF and Hydas World Health were present.  Representatives from the CDC and USAID/PMI Washington attended sessions on the 8th and 9^th of December.

Topics covered included:

-Country Overviews – each ICC presented on his or her experience in their respective country

-RDT Roll Out Plans

-Review of the IMaD Database, Checklist and other OTSS tools

-Strategies for Sustainability and Transition in IMaD countries

-Management and Finance Issues

-The Way Forward

MCDI would like to extend a note of appreciation to the IMaD In-Country Coordinators in Benin,  the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mali and Zambia; our partners at the African Medical Research Foundation and Hydas World Health; and Professor Daouda Ndiaye and colleagues at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop. Without all of their valuable contributions, our success would have been impossible to achieve and sustain. 

To view IMaD’s Quadfold Brochure click here…