Tell me a bit about yourself.

I’m trained as an infectious diseases and intensive care physician, and developing ICU [intensive care unit] care in developing countries is an interest of mine. I’ve been living here, in Bangkok, for the last 15 years. During that time, I’ve mainly been doing research on both uncomplicated and severe falciparum malaria, a disease that requires intensive care in hospital. Over the last ten years or so, I’ve developed a strong interest in antimalarial drug resistance, which is an increasing problem here in the region – again.

Despite recent declines in the number of cases worldwide, malaria remains a public health concern with 3.2 billion people still at risk of infection globally. [1] Fortunately, malaria is a treatable disease - artemisinin is an effective and potent drug recommended for treatment of uncomplicated malaria cases in most parts of the world. However, the success of this frontline drug is threatened by emerging resistance.

Despite huge efforts to treat and eradicate the disease, in 2015, 214 million people were infected with malaria. 438,000 died. More than 292,000 of those deaths were African children aged under five. Treatment is complicated by the fact the malaria parasite develops resistance to antimalarial drugs.

Despite huge efforts to treat and eradicate the disease, in 2015, more than 200 million people were infected with malaria. Nearly half a million people died. The current frontline treatment for malaria is a drug called artemisinin but treatment is complicated by the fact that the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum is exceptionally good at developing resistance to antimalarial drugs.

At the Papua New Guinea Institute for Medical Research we are contributing archived and new matched cases and controls for Consortial Project 1 and family trios for Consortial Project 3. We are based in the Entomology Unit in Madang and work closely with the Modilon General Hospital where the patients are recruited and samples are collected. We have faced many challenges during the project including setting up the necessary infrastructure, obtaining informed consent and even reaching rural clinics.

Tell me a bit about what you do.

I’m based in Bangkok at the Mathematical and Economic Modelling Unit (MAEMOD), which is part of the Mahidol Oxford Research Unit (MORU). The main work that we do is economic-epidemioloigcal modelling with a focus on mechanistic approaches, and we also do enhanced data analysis.

“Surely there is no malaria here?” This is the typical response of fellow Bangkok residents when I tell them what my research focusses on. Therein lies the malaria paradox: the action gets exciting where the disease is on the verge of being wiped out. So, while hundreds of thousands of African children die of the disease yearly, we focus our attention obsessively on Southeast Asian countries where it is sometimes hard to find enough clinical cases to complete studies.