Malaria Institute at Macha
Malaria Institute at Macha (MIAM) embodies the spirit of collaboration as researchers combine old-world and high-tech resources necessary for the on-site work required for the prevention and control of the mosquito-borne illness that kills its victims, mostly children, in numbers that rival the scourge of AIDS in Africa.The Institute’s mission is to develop a center of excellence in rural Zambia that will carry out state-of-the-art malaria research – including molecular biology, entomology, epidemiology and clinical studies. In 2005, MIAM officially opened and since the begriming of the research the incidence of malaria in the Macha area has decreased by 90 percent.
The partners involved in this effort are the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Macha Malaria Research Institute (MMRI), which is a US-based non profit organization; Macha Mission Hospital in southern Zambia; and the Zambian government through its Ministry of Health.
LOCATION: Macha is a community area in the Southern Province of Zambia
RECENT TRAINEE PROJECTS:
–Worked with local laboratory scientists to help them troubleshoot the Mannitol and Lactulose assays to assess GI permeability in HIV/AIDS patients who undergo ART therapy. Tracked changes in genetic drug resistance over time at three centers and created database categorizing information related to genomic tracking of parasite.