Digital Health Infrastructure: The Backbone of Surveillance for Malaria Elimination: Strong health information systems hold the key to ending malaria in the Greater Mekong Subregion

Abstract

Elimination of malaria is not only technically feasible but also a public health imperative. With millions of people at risk from the disease across Asia and the Pacific, and malaria imposing an even bigger burden in Africa, the race is on to eliminate the disease in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The area is of particular concern because of growing resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapies. Resistance to this last line of simple-to-use and effective malaria drugs has been detected in Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Government policy in these five affected countries is moving from containment to elimination. All five have elimination plans in place, and their heads of government were among the signatories to the 2015 Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) commitment to rid the region of malaria by 2030.