Forum on operational research in the context of the last mile of malaria elimination in Greater Mekong subregion countries, 24–25 November 2020

Overview
The WHO Mekong Malaria Elimination (MME) programme hosted the virtual Forum on operational research in the context of the last mile of malaria elimination in Greater Mekong subregion countries from 24 to 25 November 2020. The Forum brought together participants from the 6 Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries – Cambodia, China (Yunnan Province), Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam – and the Global Malaria Programme (GMP), as well as technical experts, researchers and partners to present and discuss recent findings relevant to malaria elimination in the GMS.

The operational research presented in the Forum focused on improving the uptake and scale-up of malaria elimination programming, cost-effectively implementing combinations of interventions, and measuring intervention success and impact. The main discussion points included research projects related to various programmatic areas including case detection, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, the efficacy of antimalarial drugs, vector control, radical cure, testing, surveillance, epidemiology and transmission.