Malaria diagnostics and testing: Opportunities and challenges

/Dr. Jane Achan

Microbiology & infectious disease Women in science

19 May 2022

Malaria is a life-threatening disease transmitted to humans through mosquito bites, caused by a single-cell parasite called Plasmodium. In this presentation, Dr. Jane Achan, Principal Advisor at the Malaria Consortium, discusses the different diagnostic tools and strategies available for malaria detection such as microscopy, malaria RDTs, malaria saliva tests, and non-invasive techniques. Plus, Achan describes the challenges associated with malaria diagnosis, and the need for more reliable surveillance data and disease burden estimates. This talk was presented at the SelectScience® Virtual Microbiology and Infectious Disease Summit 2022.

Dr. Jane Achan

Malaria Consortium

Biography

Dr. Jane Achan is a medical doctor with a PhD in Biomedical Sciences, a master’s degree in Pediatrics and Child health and master’s training in Clinical Trials. She is the Principal Advisor at Malaria Consortium where she oversees and supports the research agenda across the different MC countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. Prior to this, she was the Malaria Research Coordinator at the Medical Research Council Unit in The Gambia, a Senior Scientist with the Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration in Uganda, and a Lecturer at the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Makerere University. She has been involved in clinical and operational research in the fields of infectious diseases (malaria and HIV), maternal and child health and health systems for the past 20 years. Her professional interests include evaluation of chemotherapeutic interventions to guide health policy, evaluation of health-related impact of interventions and operational health systems research. More recently she has been involved in evaluating potential interactions between COVID-19 and malaria and exploring the role of innovative mass drug administration strategies for malaria burden reduction in special risk populations in high burden settings.