Australian Centre for International and Tropical Health

The Australian Centre for International and Tropical Health (ACITH) is an Australian Government funded teaching and research collaboration between The University of Queensland’s Faculty of Health Sciences (particularly the School of Population Health), and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR).

ACITH aims to improve the health of populations in Australia and internationally through excellence in education, research and service by the provision of first-class coursework and research degree courses in international and tropical public health for Australian students, students from tropical developing countries and other students with a strong interest in these areas. Other objectives include the development of superior facilities for research and research training, to support international and Australian public health programs and the transfer of knowledge and technology to tropical developing countries, and to make special provision for the training of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The maintenance and further development of strong collaborative links with an extensive number of national and international institutions is also a key objective.

APMEN - Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network

APMEN - Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network

Working together towards the elimination of malaria in the Asia Pacific.

APMEN is bringing together countries in Asia and the Pacific who have identified malaria elimination as their strategic objective in the fight against malaria.

The Network is a world-first initiative that brings Asia Pacific countries, research institutions and global health organisations together to exchange knowledge, develop leadership and build the evidence base required to eliminate malaria. 

APMEN is particularly focusing on Pladmodium vivax, vector control, mobile populations and community participation. 

The Network, led and managed by the Network Country members, is supported by collaboration between the School, the Global Health Group (University of California, San Francisco), Menzies Centre for Health Research, WHO, AusAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

MEDIA RELEASE: MVRC and UNIMAS new partners.

MEDIA RELEASE: New Country Partner Cambodia.

Contact APMEN:

Address:

Level 4, Public Health Building,
School of Population Health,
University of Queensland
Herston Road,
Herston QLD 4006,
Australia

Phone: + 61 7 336 55446
Fax: + 61 7 336 55599
Email: apmen@sph.uq.edu.au
Link: apmen.org

Investment Case for Scaling Up Equitable Progress Towards MDGs 4 and 5

Investment Case for Scaling Up Equitable Progress Towards MDGs 4 and 5

Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 aim to improve maternal, newborn and child health.

The Investment Case for financing equitable progress towards the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 is a research-for-policy initiative jointly funded by AusAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project aims to advance the agenda on equitable progress towards MDGs 4 and 5 by providing policymakers and development partners with the best available evidence for an equitable scaling-up of priority interventions to address the burden of maternal, newborn, and child mortality.

In 2011, the second phase of the project was successfully completed for pilot sites in Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, and India. Activities involved extensive collaboration with local governments, development partners, and research institutions.
 
Phase two featured in-depth analyses of the distribution of maternal, neonatal, and child mortality across a range of site-specific equity markers such as socioeconomic and rural/urban status. These same equity markers were also used to analyse the distribution of interventions efficacious against major causes of maternal, neonatal, and child mortality.
The other main component of phase two of the project was the scale-up analysis. In each site, this involved identifying local constraints hampering the scale up of cost-effective maternal, newborn, and child health interventions; designing realistic strategies are to address those constraints; and estimating the expected mortality impact and costs of implementing strategies.
 
Outputs of the MDG 4 & 5 project were able to inform local plans and budgets within several of the pilot sites. In some cases, findings influenced governments to abandon existing plans in favor of more cost-effective strategies proposed during the Investment Case. Estimates of strategy costs and impacts were also useful for local planners to put forward to the case to central sources for increased funding for maternal, neonatal, and child health strategies.
 
The success of these Investment Cases has spurred plans to roll-out wider analyses in some of the current sites, and to begin activities in new sites such as Papua province in Indonesia.

For more information, on this project, please contact Dr Eliana Jimenez.

Pacific Malaria Initiative Support Centre

Pacific Malaria Initiative Support Centre

Based at SPH, PacMISC is part of a $25 million AusAID commitment to intensified malaria control and progressive elimination in the South-West Pacific. Currently working in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, PacMISC is a collaboration with the Australi...

Based at SPH, PacMISC is part of a $25 million AusAID commitment to intensified malaria control and progressive elimination in the South-West Pacific. Currently working in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, PacMISC is a collaboration with the Australian Army Malaria Institute (AMI) and QIMR.

PacMISC aims to provide flexible, highly focused, demand-driven, locally appropriate and cost-effective program management, training and technical assistance to partner governments in order to achieve the overall goal and objectives of country National Malaria Plans whilst at the same time contributing to health systems strengthening and human resource development. It is designed to provide harmonised support of the two partner governments' programs with other partners such as WHO, The Global Fund, Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). 

More information can be found at: www.pacmisc.net

Health Services in Severely Disrupted Environments

Health Services in Severely Disrupted Environments

Reports

Reports (more detail to come).

Links to the following reports:

Afghanistan

Haiti

Palestine

The following reports are in French:

Afghanistan country report

Haiti Final

Annual report and recent publications

Annual report and recent publications

Read some of our most recent papers.

Here are a selection of recent ACITH pubications. Hard copies of most publications can be found in the Level 2 reception of the Public Health Building (Herston Road, Herston).

Too good to be true? An assessment of health system progress in Afghanistan. 2002-2010.

"Resultats perissables": An assessment of the health system in Haiti. Providing Health Care in Severely Disrupted Environments: A Multi-country 

Hill PS, Huntington D and Dodd R. (2011) Strengthening country office capacity to support Sexual and reproductive health in the new aid environment. Report of a technical consultation meeting: wrap-up assessment of the 2008–2011 UNFPA–WHO collaborative project. Glion, Switzerland, 21–23 March 2011. Geneva: World Health Organization. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2011/WHO_RHR_11.29_eng.p
 
Wijesinghe R.S, Wickremasinghe A.R.  Physical, psychological and social aspects of quality of life in filarial lymphoedema patients in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health published online 2 February 2012 DOI: 10.1177/1010539511434140

Atkinson  J-A, Johnson, M-L, Wijesinghe R, Bobogare A, Losi L, O'Sullivan M, Yamaguchi Y, Kenilorea G, Vallely A, Cheng Q, Ebringer A, Bain L, Gray K,  Harris I, Whittaker M, Reid H, Clements A and Shanks D. Operational research to inform a sub-national surveillance intervention for malaria elimination in Solomon Islands. Malaria Journal 2012, 11:101 
 
Brolan CE, Upham S, Hill PS, Simpson G, Vincent SD (2011). Borderline health: Complexities of the Torres Strait Treaty. Medical Journal of Australia195 (9): 503-505.
Bugoro H, Hii J, Russell TL, Cooper RD, Chan B, Iro’ofa C, Butafa C, Apairamo A, Bobogare A, Chen CC. Influence of environmental factors on the abundance of Anopheles farauti larvae in large brackish water streams in Northern Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Malaria Journal. 2011 10:262. www.malariajournal.com/content/10/1/262
 
Bugoro H, Iro’ofa C, Mackenzie DO, Apairamo A, Hevalao W, Corcoran S, Bobogare A, Beebe N, Russell TL, Chen CC, Cooper RD. Changes in vector species composition and current vector biology and behaviour will favour malaria elimination in Santa Isabel Province, Solomon Islands. Malaria Journal. 2011 10:287 www.malariajournal.com/content/10/1/287
 
Hill PS, Huntington D and Dodd R. (2011) Strengthening country office capacity to support Sexual and reproductive health in the new aid environment. Report of a technical consultation meeting: wrap-up assessment of the 2008–2011 UNFPA–WHO collaborative project. Glion, Switzerland, 21–23 March 2011. Geneva: World Health Organization. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2011/WHO_RHR_11.29_eng.p
 
Wijesinghe R.S, Wickremasinghe A.R.  Physical, psychological and social aspects of quality of life in filarial lymphoedema patients in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health published online 2 February 2012 DOI: 10.1177/1010539511434140

Atkinson  J-A, Johnson, M-L, Wijesinghe R, Bobogare A, Losi L, O'Sullivan M, Yamaguchi Y, Kenilorea G, Vallely A, Cheng Q, Ebringer A, Bain L, Gray K,  Harris I, Whittaker M, Reid H, Clements A and Shanks D. Operational research to inform a sub-national surveillance intervention for malaria elimination in Solomon Islands. Malaria Journal 2012, 11:101 

Russell T, Govella N, Azizi S, Drakeley C,  Kachur S and Killeen G. Increased proportions of outdoor feeding among residual malaria vector populations following increased use of insecticide-treated nets in rural Tanzania. Malaria Journal 2011, 10:80

 

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