PNG Medical Scientist among others discover technique to detect Malaria

Francis Lelngei, a medical scientist from Papua New Guinea’s Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) and Associate Professor Li Jin, from the Shandong Institute of Parasitic Diseases, have successfully established a highly sensitive diagnostic technique for the detection of malaria at CPHL.

This achievement was made possible through close collaboration between China’s National Institute of Parasitic Diseases and Papua New Guinea provincial disease control agencies, under the Australia-China-Papua New Guinea Pilot Cooperation on Malaria Control Project.

This trilateral cooperation project commenced in 2016 and is the first of its kind between the three countries. It uses Australian funding to support Papua New Guinea, Chinese and Australian scientists and researchers to design and implement activities which improve the quality of malaria diagnosis in PNG.

Nearly 95 percent of PNG’s population live in areas at high risk of malaria transmission, so ensuring prompt detection and treatment is critical to reducing the burden of this disease.