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:

• Professor Ric Price

Co-investigators

• Professor Stephen Graham - University of Melbourne 
• Professor Anna Ralph - Menzies School of Health Research 
• Doctor Jeanne Poespoprodjo - Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 
• Doctor Evelyn Lavu - National Department of Health Papua New Guinea 
• Doctor Philipp DuCros - Burnet Institute 
• Professor Nicholas Anstey - Menzies School of Health Research 
• Doctor Christopher Morgan - Burnet Institute 
• Doctor Suman Majumdar - Burnet Institute
• Doctor Rintis Noviyanti – Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology, Indonesia

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:

• Cindy Fahey

Program Dates: 

• July 2018 - June 2021

Funders:

• Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security | Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade 

Collaborators:

• Burnet Institute
• University of Melbourne
• Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia        
• National Department of Health, Papua New Guinea
  • Central Public Health Lab, PNG
  • Western Province Health Office, PNG
• Papuan Health and Community Development Foundation
• Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology, Jakarta
• Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
• Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
• Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network
• WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network

Australian partners

International partners: