RAI2E Aims for Malaria Elimination in the Greater Mekong Sub-region 15.01.2018

Migrants, refugees and other mobile population groups – such as longer-term forest goers and their families who work in logging, construction projects, mining or other forest-related commercial projects – are at high risk of malaria and have limited access to prevention, diagnostic testing and treatment services for malaria. RAI2E is bringing quality malaria services to the most vulnerable communities in Myanmar’s remote rural areas, where access to quality malaria care is most limited and the need is great

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS. Tuberculosis and Malaria will continue to support five Southeast Asian countries to expand efforts against malaria, and aim to eliminate the most deadly strain of malaria. The Global Fund's Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI) was launched in 2013 in response to the emergence of drug-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong region, first noted in Cambodia and Thailand and later Myanmar, Laos and Viet Nam. The RAI as been expanded with a second phase, the RAI2-Elimination (RAI2E) programme, which is a $ 243 million regional grant to accelerate elimination of P. falciparum malaria in the Greater Mekong Sub-region over a three-year period (2018-2020). 

 

The Global Fund's Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI) was launched in 2013 in response to the emergence of drug-resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong region, first noted in Cambodia and Thailand and later Myanmar, Laos and Viet Nam. RAI has supported countries to purchase and distribute commodities such as insecticide-treated nets, rapid diagnostic tests that don't require a laboratory or medical expertise, and quality-assured drugs, which together have yielded a sharp drop in malaria deaths.

The RAI as been expanded with a second phase, the RAI2-Elimination (RAI2E) programme, which is a $ 243 million regional grant to accelerate elimination of P. falciparum malaria in the Greater Mekong Sub-region over a three-year period (2018-2020). 

The RAI2E supports increased malaria service coverage for remote populations in border areas and other at-risk populations, as well as case management through health volunteers and strengthening of national surveillance systems.