World Malaria Day: The Groupe de Recherche Action en Santé (GRAS) renews its commitment to the fight against malaria.

Every 25 April, International Malaria Day is celebrated. All the actors of health and humanity, are working on this phenomenon, more than tragic, which bereaves millions of families around the world in general and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Every two minutes, an African child dies of malaria.

According to the latest Figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in its 2019 annual report on malaria, out of 228 million malaria cases worldwide in 2018, 218 million, or 93% of cases, have been recorded in sub-Saharan Africa.

Malaria, a disease of poverty, contributes to further impoverishment of our communities by increasing household spending on case management, lost productivity, absenteeism in school and work.

Faced with this bleak picture of malaria in Burkina Faso and sub-Saharan Africa, GRAS intends to position itself as a real player in the fight against malaria through medical research, in close collaboration with its national, sub-regional and international partners.

On the occasion of World Malaria Day 2020, the institution would like to highlight the important role it plays in health research, namely in vaccine research, research into new generations of antimalarial drugs and research into innovative strategies to improve access to effective diagnostic tools and treatments.

Along with nine (09) other partners, GRAS will evaluate five vaccine candidates from different stages of malaria development in Africa over the next five years as part of the multilateral MIMVaC-Africa consortium.

With the confidence that GRAS enjoys with its international partners, it is coordinating the latest MIMVac-Africa consortium, which was launched in March 2020. This MIMVac-Africa consortium comprises ten (10) countries from different continents, namely, Germany, England, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Japan, Luxembourg, Kenya, Mozambique, the Netherlands and Tanzania. The MIMVac-Africa consortium each receives funding from the Europe Developing Countries Partnership for Clinical Trials (EDCTP), which is itself a European Union programme.

GRAS takes this opportunity to once again express its gratitude to the Burkinabe State through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry in charge of Scientific Research, as well as to all the other national and international partners who accompany it in the daily implementation of its activities for the common struggle of a malaria-free world.

For more information: www.gras.bf