Yoel Lubell – SEACTN

SEACTN WP-A Dashboard updates

Despite all the challenges thrown at us over the last 2 years we are finally up and running, with over 1500 patients already recruited in WP-A (investigating causes and outcomes of febrile illness in rural communities across South and Southeast Asia). Our wonderful team in Savanakhet, Laos were first off the mark last year, and have now been joined by the new sites in Chiangrai, Thailand, in Pailin and Battambang, Cambodia, and in Karen State, Myanmar. We hope the new sites in Southern Thailand and in Bangladesh will come online in the coming weeks too, as soon as local EC approvals and site agreements are in place.

Dr Aung Pyae Phyo and the SMRU team first visited 12 malaria posts, recruiting 20 patients, then went to another 10-12 posts, all located in Karen State, Myanmar.

Other SEACTN activities already off the ground include the stakeholder interviews, led by Dr Marco Liverani, and the verbal autopsies taking place in Laos and soon to be launched in Cambodia and in Chiangrai, Thailand.

A massive thank you to all the SEACTN team in Bangkok and in all the sites for all the perseverance in getting us this far!

Community engagement and training videos complete

With our collaborators from Digital MEdIC at the Stanford Center for Health Education, we’ve prepared 2 videos in multiple languages that will be used to explain the project to community members and patients, and to train VHWs on how to collect dried blood spots. Here are the English versions:

Community engagement video

Training video for the preparation of dried blood spots

SEACTN is extending to Cambodia!

We recently received the exciting news that the Global Fund will support the expansion of the SEACTN network to Cambodia. The funding will allow us to work in an additional ~130 villages in Battambang and Pailin provinces, where Village Malaria Workers are currently in place, but as elsewhere in the region they have seen sharp declines in malaria incidence, and testing rates have fallen.

Despite the challenging environment, SEACTN/RFI projects are gearing up for launch:

Protocols for Work Package A, the verbal autopsies, and the Stakeholder Analysis approved by OxTREC
Local health authorities in all countries have been informed of the programme and have confirmed their support
486 villages and 28 health centres in Laos selected for inclusion in WP-A
eCRF developed on Commcare and undergoing testing
Laboratory equipment purchased including a BD-MAX multiplex PCR platform, a MagNa Pure NA purification instrument; -80c freezer, a biosafety cabinet.
Multiplex molecular panels developed
Community engagement and patient information videos scripted (6 languages) and currently in production.