The tenth intercountry meeting of national malaria programme managers of all countries in the Region was held from 18 to 20 February in Sharm el Sheikh.
The meeting aimed to review regional progress and the challenges being encountered in malaria control and elimination and provided opportunities to update participants with new developments on prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Priorities for 2014–2015 were discussed and agreed upon.
Among the recommendations, it was highlighted that malaria care services should be scaled-up towards 100% coverage of all suspected cases in all health facilities, including those managed by community and private services.
The meeting recommended that existing microscopy services should be sustained, upgraded and expanded to provide reliable diagnosis, except where rapid tests are clearly more cost-effective because of epidemiological and operational factors. A mechanism for regular training of microscopists especially in eliminating and malaria-free countries should be developed as expertise is being lost due to the low malaria incidence. Malaria managers and partners of all participating countries were urged to develop a plan on insecticide resistance management.
