To mark World Malaria Day, the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), led by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released its sixth annual report which describes the role and contributions of the U.S. Government in the effort to reduce the burden of malaria in Africa, and to monitor antimalarial drug resistance and decrease malaria transmission in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

Traditionally an opportunity to reflect on progress and challenges, this year’s World Malaria Day theme is Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria. The recent report of artemisinin resistance on the Thai-Myanmar border is a timely reminder that significant gains – like a 30% reduction in deaths over the last decade in Africa – are fragile.

LSHTM Research Online is a freely accessible database of the research outputs of the School. It currently holds over 19,000 bibliographic records and over 2000 full text items. These include articles, working papers, conference proceedings, reports, books and book chapters. LSHTM Research Online can be searched using keywords or browsed by author, year, faculty/department or research centre.

A recent op-ed piece by Frank Smithuis, Director of Medical Action Myanmar, and Nick White, Professor of Tropical Medicine at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, highlights the risk of emerging drug resistance on the Thai-Cambodia border and identify Myanmar, with the largest malaria burden in the region, as a potential conduit for the western spread of artmesinin resistance. The pair call for urgent and immediate financial support for large scale action in Myanmar to prevent the further spread of artemisinin-resistant parasites.