the 7th RNAS+ workshop

HARNESSING HEALTH MANAGEMENT FOR VULNERABLE
POPULATIONS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA TARGETING
SCHISTOSOMIASIS, FOODBORNE TREMATODES
AND CYSTICERCOSIS

Meetings: a sign of active collaboration

RESEARCH IN MOTION

TRACK RECORD

RNAS+ started in the year 2000 as a small schistomiasis action network in core endemic areas but operates now (2008) in nine countries and targets several helminth diseases.

OPPORTUNITIES

Increasing awareness of the role of climate and environment Changing epidemioliogical patterns of tropical diseases. Rapid growth of key technologies (health metrics,GIS,etc.) Development of evidence-based policies. New initiatives addressing neglected tropical diseases.

The 7th RNAS+ Workshop

STRENGTHS

EXPERTISE IN RESEARCH AND CONTROL OF HELMINTH DISEASES
Coordinating multidisciplinary and multilateral projects.
Developing training packages and giving courses.
Linking academic research and control programs.

AVAILABLE MECHANISMS FOR INFORMATION SHARING
Network frameworks
Website
Databases
Publications
Meetings

COLLABORTING CENTERS AND INSTITUTIONS

Australia:the Queensland Institute for Medical Research (QIMR)
Switzerland:the Swiss Tropical Institute (STI)
Denmark:the WHO/FAO Collaborating Center for Parasitic Zoonoses and the DBL Center for Health Research and Development,University of Copenhagen.

COLLABORATING INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND NETWORKS

Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD),World Health Organization (WHO)
WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO)
UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)
The Global Network on Geospatial Health

GOAL:
Reduction of impact and disease burdens due to neglected,tropical diseases (NTD) such as clonorchiasis, cysticercosis, fascioliasis paragonomiasis and schistosomiasis.

MEANS:
Continuous provision of training (including courses and workshops) research
support and dissemination of information on epidemiology, new tools and control activities.

EVALUATONS:
2008:past progress
2012:activities and achieved targets

TARGETS:
TO BE ACHIEVED BY 2012

TRAINING
Training courses on GIS.health metrics,molecular biology,immunology including diagnostics.

RESEARCH
Projects on diagnostics (schistosomiasis, clonorchiasis, opisthorchiasis, fascioloasis, paragonomiasis & cysticercosis)
Health metrics studies
Multi-disciplinary, multi-country research projects (schistosomiasis, clonorchiasis, opisthorchiasis & cysticercosis)
Vaccine evalustion studies(schistosomiasis)
Demographic modeling studies
Developments of control strategies(schistosomiasis, clonorchiasis, opisthorchiasis, & cysticercosis)

INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
Regular meetings/symposia
Rrgularily updated website and database
Biannual, on-line newsletter
Texbook on neglected NTDs
Annual reports for each year

WORKSHOPS
Workshops on the development of proposals for regional health metrics studies on NTDs
Workshops on resource generation and mobilization

PLANS

Production of training packages on specific topics, primarily diagnostics, health metrics, geographical information system (GIS),molecular biology and immunology.
Facilitation of research on new tools such as vaccine development, control strategies and diagnostics.
Sessions for sharing of new information related to the overall goal.

VISION

To become the recognizad platform for evidencebased information and intersectoral communication bridging the gap between research scientists and control authoriries for the prevention of neglected helminth disearses in Southeast Asia.

MISSION PRIORITIES

With the ultimate goal of supporting control strategies for its target diseases BNAS+ aims to improve and standardize diagnostics and to introduce new, powerful technologied in epidemiology,e.g.geographical information systems (GIS) and satellitebased remote sensing (RS).Furthermore, RNAS+ will strengthen regional research on molecular biology, genetics and the development and production of vaccines, in particular for schistosomiasis.