The American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) is the largest international scientific organization of experts dedicated to reducing tropical infectious diseases.
Each year, the ASTMH annual meeting serves as a platform for professionals representing academia, foundations, government, non-profit organizations, and the private sector to share their latest work and discuss key issues facing the global health and tropical medicine communities. The 2024 ASTMH annual meeting will be held from November 13-17 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
At PATH, we support a wide array of malaria control and elimination efforts backed by extensive technical expertise. Our efforts include accelerating malaria vaccine development and introduction, advancing vector control, improving diagnostic tests, expanding access to existing and new tools, and developing, evaluating, and scaling digital platforms to inform decision-making.
In addition to presenting the insights and discoveries made by PATH teams and our partners this year, our participation underscores our dedication to collaboration and innovative, data-driven strategies addressing urgent challenges in global health. We are eager to share our work and look forward to connecting with you in New Orleans.
Join the conversation online at #Tropmed2024 and via @PATHTweets and @PATHMalaria.
See below for a full schedule of PATH’s symposia, oral presentations, and posters at the conference. *Times for all ASTMH events are in Central Time.
PATH posters
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Poster Session A: Convention Center Hall I-1, Thursday, November 14, 12-1:45 p.m.
- Poster #6485: Assessment of the malaria surveillance system in elimination-targeted North Bank Regions, The Gambia | Presenter: Momodou Kalleh.
- Poster #6469: Challenges in estimating coverage indicators for perennial malaria chemoprevention (PMC) when combining standard rollout plus catch-up approaches: Lessons learned from pilot implementation in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) | Presenter: Nono Mvuama Mazangama.
- Poster #6443: Novel assay to assess the serological equivalence of vaccine-induced responses to critical monoclonal antibodies | Presenter: Jessica Bolton, WRAIR.
- Poster #6505: Characterizing the serological IgG repertoire of Tanzanian children vaccinated with novel malaria blood-stage candidate RH5.1/Matrix-M adjuvant | Jeffrey Marchioni, UT Austin.
- Poster # 6511: Phase 1a clinical trial of safety and immunogenicity of RH5.1 and R78C with Matrix-M™ adjuvant in UK adults – a novel combination vaccine candidate against the P. falciparum blood-stage RCR invasion complex | Presenter: Jo Salkeld, Univ of Oxford
- Poster #6514: IMV: Innovations in Malaria Vaccine Development Program | Presenter: Kerry Laurino.
- Poster #6521: Results from a Phase III study to assess the safety, immune response, and lot-to-lot consistency of EuTCV single-dose and multi-dose formulation compared to the comparator vaccine Typbar-TCV® in healthy African adults and young children 6 months to 45 years of age | Presenter: Patricia Njuguna.
- Poster #LB-9032: Down-selection and manufacture of a next-generation epitope-based malaria vaccine candidate | Presenter: Sheetij Dutta, WRAIR.
- Poster #LB-9108: Acceptability of malaria vaccination in areas with seasonal malaria transmission | Presenter: Jane Grant, LSHTM
Poster Session B: Convention Center Hall I-1, Friday, November 15, 12-1:45 p.m.
- Poster #6995: Characterizing Residual Malaria Transmission in Three Selected High-Burden Districts of Western Province, Zambia | Presenter: Benjamin Chanda.
- Poster #7027: Deployment of Attractive Targeted Sugar Baits in Western Zambia: installation, monitoring, removal, and disposal procedures during a Phase III cluster randomized control trial | Presenter: Erica Orange.
- Poster #7291: Evaluation of Clothianidin Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) and Piperonyl Butoxide (PBO) Insecticide-Treated Net (ITN) Co-Deployment Compared to PBO ITNs Only Using Health Management Information System Data in Sierra Leone, 2017-2023 | Presenter: Emily Hilton.
- Poster #6496: Situational Analysis of the Township-Level Malaria Surveillance System in Rakhine State and Tanintharyi Region of Myanmar | Presenter: Zwe Thihaa Kyaw.
- Poster #7287: Leveraging perennial malaria chemoprevention (PMC) pilot implementation to pave the way for PMC and malaria vaccine co-implementation in the Democratic Republic of Congo | Presenter: Nono Mvuama Mazangama.
- Poster #7193: Experiences from digitalizing ITN mass distribution campaigns in Zambia | Presenter: Japhet Chiwaula.
- Poster #7346: Vaccine designs to elicit protective antibodies against Plasmodium falciparum CSP | Presenter: Randall MacGill.
Poster Session C: Convention Center Hall I-1, Saturday, November 16, 11 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
- Poster #8066: Evaluating sub-national tailoring of malaria interventions.
- Poster #8020: Community acceptance of a novel malaria intervention, ATSB stations, in the context of the ATSB Zambia phase III trial | Presenter: Erica Orange.
- Poster #8046: Benefits of inclusive innovation in the development of a decentralized Routine Data Quality Audit (RDQA) implementation model in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) | Presenter: Jicko Bondole.
- Poster #8032: An observational study evaluating the epidemiological and entomological impacts of piperonyl butoxide insecticide-treated nets compared to a combination of indoor residual spraying plus standard pyrethroid-only ITNs in Amhara Region, Ethiopia, 2019-2022 | Presenter: Kelly Davis.
- Poster #LB-9437: Improved planning for surveillance after disease elimination: piloting the Integrated Post-Validation or Verification Surveillance (PVS) Planning Toolkit for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Nigeria and Senegal | Presenter: Meredith Center.
- Poster #LB-9450: In-country nanopore sequencing identifies Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance associated mutations in Zambia | Presenter: Mulenga Mwenda Chimfwembe.
- Poster #7997: Assessing human antibody responses to the Plasmodium falciparum RH5-CyRPA-RIPR (RCR) invasion complex; quantification of responses to three blood-stage target antigens | Presenter: Dimitra Pipini, Oxford
- Poster #8088: Abundant non-neutralizing, synergizing IgG lineages play a crucial protective role in malaria-naïve United Kingdom adults vaccinated with blood-stage vaccine candidate RH5.1/AS01Β | Presenter: Jeffrey Marchioni, UT Austin.
Oral presentations
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Thursday, November 14
Session 13 - Malaria: Surveillance and Data Use
8:00 – 9:45 a.m.
Convention Center- Room 393/394, 3rd Floor
- 8:15 a.m.: iCCM Community health workers and their impact on severe malaria and malaria mortality in Luapula Province, Zambia’s highest malaria burden province, 2016–2023, #6028| Presenter: Melody Simataa
- 9:34 a.m. Lightning talk: Impact of Routine Data Quality Audits (RDQA) in improving data quality and malaria management standards in health facilities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), #7326| Presenter: Jicko Bondole
Session 45 - Malaria: Elimination
3:00 – 4:45 p.m.
Convention Center- Room 395/396, 3rd Floor
- 4:00 p.m.: Re-emergence of Plasmodium Vivax Malaria Cases in Border Areas of Myanmar and Strategic Efforts to Integrate New Tools at National Level for Elimination of Plasmodium Vivax Malaria From 2021 to 2023, #6801| Presenter: Zwe Thihaa Kyaw
Session 54 - Global Health: Research, Training, Policy, and Decolonization
5:15 – 7:00 p.m.
Convention Center- Room 383/384/385, 3rd Floor
- 6:30 p.m.: Enhancing the Quality of Community Health Services in Madagascar: A Mixed Methods Evaluation of a CHV Peer Supervision Model in Four Regions, #6820| Presenter: Samantha Herrera
Friday, November 15
Session 73 - Malaria: Prevention
10:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Convention Center- Room 393/394, 3rd Floor
- 10:30 a.m.: Effectiveness of chlorfenapyr-pyrethroid insecticide-treated nets on decreasing malaria in Liberia: an observational analysis using routine health facility data, 2019 – 2023, #6864 | Presenter: Emily Hilton
Session 101 - Malaria: Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics
4:00 – 5:45 p.m.
Convention Center - Room 391/392, 3rd Floor
- 5:00 p.m.: Development of a Global Research Agenda to Guide the Operationalization and Scale-Up of Malaria Vaccines, #7630| Presenter: Kwaku Poku Asante
Saturday, November 16
Session 155 - Mosquitoes - Epidemiology and Vector Control II
5:15 – 7:00 p.m.
Convention Center- Room 353, 3rd Floor
- 6:00 p.m.: Entomological Effects of Attractive Targeted Sugar Bait Station Deployment in Western Zambia: Vector Surveillance Findings from a Two-arm Cluster Randomized Phase III Trial, #8353| Presenter: Javan Chanda
Sunday, November 17
8:00 – 9:45 a.m.
Convention Center- Room 354/355, 3rd Floor
- 9:30 a.m.: The Anti-Circumsporozoite Antibody Response of Children to Seasonal Vaccination With the RTS,S/AS01EMalaria Vaccine over five years of follow-up (4 booster doses) | Presenter: M. Sanni Ali, LSTMH
Symposia
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Thursday, November 14
A Tribute to Carlos (Kent) Campbell: Global Leader in the Fight Against Malaria
5:15 – 7:00 p.m.
Convention Center - Room 343/344, 3rd Floor
- Carlos (Kent) Campbell, MD, MPH, FASTMH, ASTMH President (2007), Councilor (1990-1994) and recipient of the Society’s Joseph Augustin Le Prince Medal (2012) passed away in Tucson, Arizona, on February 20, 2024, at age 80. Known to many for his kind, charismatic demeanor, visionary thinking, and good-natured sense of humor expressed in his southern drawl, Kent was a global leader in the fight against malaria who had a profound impact on efforts to control and eliminate the disease. This tribute symposium will track his remarkable life and career from his pre-CDC life in eastern Tennessee and at Haverford, Duke and Harvard through his start at the Centers for Disease Control as an EIS Officer in 1972, his start in malaria in El Salvador (1973-1976) followed by his leadership as Malaria Branch Chief (through 1993), his move to Arizona to develop and serve as interim Dean of the University of Arizona College of Public Health (1995-2002) and his return to malaria-specific work with UNICEF and then the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he worked to co-develop the MACEPA Program and the Center of Excellence for Malaria at PATH (2003-2014) and establish collaborations with many African malaria-endemic countries and the global malaria community. As Kent noted in 2014, “Building a set of systems changes forever the potential of African communities: that’s what’s kept me in this business. When I started, malaria was merely a biological entity people studied in the lab, and I’ve seen a rapid shift during my career.” The symposium will focus on his ever-evolving work and the qualities and reach of his mentorship over 40+ years. We will be joined by Kent’s immediate family and many of his collaborating colleagues. Reception to follow.
Friday, November 15
7:00 – 8:15 a.m.
Convention Center - Room 343/344, 3rd Floor
- The Westham Sarabi attractive targeted sugar bait (ATSB) is designed to attract sugar-foraging mosquitoes and kill them with an ingestion toxicant. When deployed as part of a community-wide attract and kill vector control strategy, ATSBs may shorten the lifespan of female Anopheles malaria vectors and reduce malaria burden. Three independent 2-arm community-randomized controlled trials were conducted in Zambia (November 2021-June 2023), Kenya (March 2022-March 2024), and Mali (May 2022-January 2024). In the control arm, standard-of-care vector control was reinforced consisting of ensuring high coverage of including insecticide-treated nets (ITN), with indoor residual spray in areas that did not receive ITN also deployed in Zambia (mosaic approach). Arm 2 received reinforced standard-of-care vector control plus ATSB stations installed on exterior walls of all eligible household structures. ATSBs were monitored and replaced as needed for 6- to 7-month deployment periods. Deployment was seasonal in Zambia (November-June) and Mali (May-January) and year-round in Kenya. The primary outcome was clinical malaria incidence among cohorts of children aged 12 months to 14 years in Zambia and Kenya and 5 to 14 years in Mali. Secondary outcomes included Plasmodium falciparum infection prevalence among people ages 6 months and older, and entomological outcomes including density, parity, and entomological inoculation rate. Results from all 3 trials will be examined together providing opportunity to discuss ATSB impact across 3 very different study contexts with important variations that may influence ATSB efficacy. These important study site variations include differences in primary malaria vectors, patterns and intensity of malaria transmission, current malaria control strategies, population and housing density, climate, vegetation, and sugar availability for malaria vectors. Implications for malaria vector control policy and programs, as well as the evolving ATSB learning agenda will be discussed.
Malaria Prevention: A Trilogy of Tools to Accelerate to Zero Deaths
7:15 – 8:45 a.m.
Convention Center - Room 395/396, 3rd Floor
Malaria prevention is a key pillar of efforts to drive to elimination. The toolbox is expanding, with new medical innovations such as vaccines, medicines in development and novel insecticides. Each tool plays a unique role in addressing the specific needs of at-risk and underserved populations. An integrated and complimentary approach is the only way to meet the needs of all. Sponsored by Medicines for Malaria Venture and TDR.
Saturday, November 16
116 - Implementing Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention across Africa: Converging to Consensus?
8:00–9:45 a.m., Symposium 116
Convention Center - Room 391/392, 3rd Floor
- Perennial malaria chemoprevention (PMC) is the administration of a full treatment course of an antimalarial medicine at predefined intervals, regardless of whether the child is infected with malaria, to prevent illness in moderate to high perennial malaria transmission settings. The goal of PMC is to protect young children by establishing preventive antimalarial drug concentrations in the blood that clear existing infections and prevent new ones during the age of greatest risk of severe malaria. In 2022 the World Health Organization (WHO) expanded its recommendation for Intermittent Preventive Treatment in infants (IPTi) to Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention for “infants and young children at high risk of severe malaria living in areas with moderate-to-high malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa”. The updated recommendation no longer limits the intervention specifically to infants and reflects the malaria transmission settings in which the intervention should be considered. The recommendation further states that the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) platform remains important for delivering PMC, though other methods of delivery can be explored to optimize access to PMC and integration with other health interventions. These changes encouraged National Malaria Programs to consider adding PMC to their national malaria control strategies and provided flexibility in PMC delivery regarding dosing, contact points, and age. Speakers will present findings from 7 countries from across Africa highlighting recent operational research studies and lessons learned from implementation focusing on acceptability, uptake, data management and reporting, and the concomitant roll-out of PMC and the malaria vaccine. The co-chairs will lead a moderated discussion on the key lessons and best practices coming from countries, offering considerations to other countries contemplating implementing PMC.
3:00 –4:45 p.m.
Convention Center - Room 391/392, 3rd Floor
- Limited access to care and delayed care seeking remain significant barriers to controlling malaria. Despite renewed focus on community health worker (CHW) programs, access to and use of malaria services, especially for remote populations, remain low. This symposium will present results from recent community case management innovations designed to improve access to timely malaria services in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Presentations will include results from cluster-randomized trials, pilot projects, and scale-up of expanded CHW services through the routine health system, plus a modeling application to optimize CHW placement. First, we will hear new results from a recently completed trial in three districts in Malawi of the expansion of malaria community case management (mCCM) to community members of all ages. Our speaker from Madagascar will then discuss the implementation of age-expanded mCCM in southeast Madagascar through the routine health system, explaining how findings from a similar study in Madagascar informed the implementation approach, and how community intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (c-IPTp) services were successfully added without over burdening CHWs. The second community-based innovation will cover proactive approaches whereby CHWs visit households at periodic intervals to test for and treat malaria (ProCCM in Mali and Zambia). In Mali, proactive visits were part of a comprehensive pilot of malaria services that included a strengthened CHW network and reinforced primary care services, a package that helped reduce child mortality in a setting of conflict and displaced populations. The speaker will present the latest findings on the (limited) added benefits of proactive visits on top of a comprehensive package of strengthened malaria services, with an aim towards helping donors and policymakers understand the best use of limited resources when scaling-up community services. Similarly, implications of a recent ProCCM trial in Zambia, where the benefits of proactive malaria sweeps in a setting of high mCCM coverage were modest, will be discussed. Finally, we will hear from a modeler who will present work done in collaboration with the Cameroon Ministry of Health to understand optimal geographic expansion of CHW networks. The model targets areas with higher malaria burden, child mortality, and displaced populations, and the speaker will explain how to adapt it across different settings. All presenters will discuss logistical challenges and lessons learned during trial and program implementation, as well as how their findings can inform policy and program decisions in malaria-endemic countries.
