Health Interventions |
The development of new health interventions, especially in the field of malaria, is one of the long-standing and most successful traditions at Swiss TPH. The Health Interventions Unit works on all aspects of applied research against malaria, from testing new vaccines to implementing proven control tools at national level.
A special recent highlight is the Phase 3 testing of the RTS,S malaria vaccine at 11 sites in 7 African countries. RTS,S is currently the most advanced malaria vaccine. A number of other vaccine candidates including attenuated sporozoites are also being tested in Phase 1 and 2 trials.
The generation of new evidence on current vector control measures is continuously pursued, in synergy with expert advisory activities at global level.
An important area of activity is the introduction of better diagnostic approaches (IMALDIA, PeDiAtrick and ALMANACH projects) and improving access to quality fever case management (ACCESS and ALIVE projects). For ACCESS our unit works with the Ifakara Health Institute and with support by the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development.
Finally, our unit is involved in applied control activities, assisting for example the Tanzanian National Malaria Control Programme with the national Insecticide-Treated Net programme and its case management unit (NETCELL).
Since 2002 Swiss TPH supports the Tanzanian National ITN Programme (NATNETS)
Research Groups
The unit consists of three research groups: