Recent efforts by the Ghana National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) have resulted in decreasing malaria transmission. However, in five northern regions of the country, despite interventions such as indoor residual spraying, long lasting insecticide treated nets and seasonal malaria chemoprevention, transmission is decreasing considerably less than other regions. The reasons behind this are being investigated by the NMEP. However, there are no significant plans to understand the relationships between insecticide and antimalarial drug resistance, vector frequency and distribution, genetic diversity and gene flow and how these factors and their interactions might be contributing to the poor results from interventions. The project aims to understand these factors and their relationships to each other through an integrated approach of parasite and vector molecular surveillance between the regions, in particular along the north-south gradient.

Contributor: 

• Lucas Amenga-Etego: West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana