We’re the Malaria Centre at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Founded in 1998, we’re a global network of over 300 researchers, postgraduate students and support staff working together in 40 countries around the world.
The story of malaria is still being written.
- But how is this story developing?
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The constant battle between people and this persistent disease features throughout so much of human history – sometimes we’ve had the upper hand, and sometimes not. While important achievements have been made over the past 30 years and the global burden has been dramatically reduced, evidence shows us that we’re losing ground and these hard-won gains are now under threat.
Malaria continues to prevail, too many lives are still being impacted and too many lives are still being lost. It’s a disease with complex levels and layers, with many factors contributing to its ever-changing and rapid evolution including human behaviour, economic, social and political upheaval, the effects of poverty, drug-resistant pathogens, the role of the vector, disrupted environments and climate change.
Humanity has made great progress over the years, saving and improving many lives, eliminating malaria in dozens of countries, making powerful breakthroughs, and finding new ways to work together for greater effect. But we know if we take our foot off the accelerator, even for a moment, malaria comes surging back. The effect of the global pandemic is a prime example, showing us just how quickly progress can be reversed.
At the Malaria Centre, we know that now is the time to dig deeper and push harder than ever before. That’s why we’ve dedicated our work and ourselves to the acceleration of progress in the fight against malaria. As an international teaching and research institute, our members work across education and research, informing policy change and translating new knowledge into tools and technologies that drive us forward. We do what we do at the Malaria Centre because ultimately, we believe human ingenuity and adaptability will help us get ahead of malaria.
What we do
Our work is driven by three key principles:
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If we’re going to be adaptable enough to get ahead of malaria, we know we’ll need the powerful creativity that only comes from interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary ways of working. To spark new ideas, leap ahead and out-manoeuvre this complex disease we’ll need more minds, more perspectives, more lived experience and more people working on different aspects of the challenge. Getting ahead of malaria demands many angles of attack and the richest mix of expertise. And we need to keep growing that mix by training the next generation of malaria researchers and collaborators to bring fresh energy and zeal to drive us forward in the fight against the disease.
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To accelerate progress in the fight against malaria we need to make even more of our growing, global network of colleagues and collaborators. New ideas can come from anyone and anywhere, that’s why we’re committed to being a pivotal connector and an open partner, committed to inspire change. That means reaching out further and finding new and better ways of working with one another, wherever we are in the world. It means learning from lived experience to break down barriers. It means listening, responding and challenging power dynamics to promote equity and equality across the malaria research community.
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We’re not starting from a blank page at the Malaria Centre. We’re fortunate to have very tall shoulders to stand on that help us see further than ever before. In everything we do we leverage the solid foundations of LSHTM's 125-year journey of discovery to launch us forward to deeper understanding, better insight, further breakthroughs and accelerated progress.