Program aims:

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant (MDR) malaria pose major public health challenges, threatening health security across the Asia-Pacific region. Our team has a proven 20-year record of strengthening research collaboration in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea and in facilitating implementation of research findings into policy and practice.  We will work with partners from our regional networks to increase the research capacity and expertise of our partners, developing and testing health systems strategies to prevent and contain multidrug-resistant malaria and TB, and strengthening the capacity of health systems.

This will expand our system strengthening activities, and regional collaborations established with the Tropical Disease Research Regional Collaboration Initiative (TDRRCI). We will build upon our existing capacity development, to scale up new health interventions that address health security and achieve policy transfer, driven by systems-oriented implementation research

  • improving service delivery for the prevention and treatment of infection
  • implementing new approaches to tuberculosis case detection and prevention, particularly multi-drug resistant strains
  • molecular surveillance for monitoring the emergence and spread of MDR organisms at sentinel sites, so that healthcare resources can be prioritised for high risk populations
  • The team will support and upskill local researchers to address both diseases
Chief Investigator:
Co-investigators
Associate Investigators
  • Doctor Sarah Auburn- Menzies School of Health Research
  • Doctor Geoff Chan - Burnet Institute 
  • Associate Professor Christopher Coulter - Queensland Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory
  • Doctor Paison Dakulala - National Department of Health, Papua New Guinea
  • Angela Devine – University of Oxford, UK
  • Associate Professor Freya Fowkes - University of Melbourne, Monash University
  • Doctor Enny Kenangalem - Papuan Community Health and Development Foundation, Indonesia
  • Doctor Trisasi Lestari - Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
  • Professor Koen Peeters - Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium
  • Doctor Leanne Robinson – Burnet Institute
Program Manager:
Program Dates: 
  • July 2018 - June 2021
  1. Funding spotlight on eliminating malaria in Vietnam

    Funding spotlight on eliminating malaria in Vietnam

    Date

  2. PNG-Aust researchers to combine under new grant program

    PNG-Aust researchers to combine under new grant program

    Date

    Australian and Papua New Guinean research groups will work in partnership to address malaria, tuberculosis and other health security threats, under a new grants program funded by the Australian government.

  3. Improving P. vivax malaria treatment

    Improving P. vivax malaria treatment

    Date

    A study, led by a team at Menzies School of Health Research in Australia, has assembled individual patient data from clinical trials conducted since 2000, investigating the effect of chloroquine dosing, combined with the partner drug primaquine, and the risk of recurrent malaria across different settings.

  4. NT News | Malaria breakthrough for NT

    NT News | Malaria breakthrough for NT

    Date

    NT News page 7 - 21 July 2018 | Report on The Lancet Infectious Diseases P.vivax paper.

  5. Xinhua News | "Radical cure" best treatment for common malaria: study

    Xinhua News | "Radical cure" best treatment for common malaria: study

    Date

    (Xinhua) -- Researchers have discovered that a "radical cure" is the best treatment for a type of malaria affecting 13 million people.

  6. New evidence supports radical treatment of widespread form of malaria

    New evidence supports radical treatment of widespread form of malaria

    Date

    A team of malaria experts from a large international research collaboration has today published results supporting the need for a radical cure strategy to tackle one of the most debilitating forms of malaria caused by the Plasmodium vivax parasite.

  7. Stronger Systems for Health Security Applied Research Grants

    Stronger Systems for Health Security Applied Research Grants

    Date

  8. Australian support for eliminating malaria and health research in the Indo-Pacific

    Australian support for eliminating malaria and health research in the Indo-Pacific

    Date

    Australia is playing a leading role in supporting malaria elimination efforts, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. The Government's Stronger Systems for Health Security program is supporting practical, relevant research into fundamental health security challenges.