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 9th 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.
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