The COSMIC study policy panel meeting to review the final research results of the Community-based scheduled screening and treating of malaria in pregnancy for improved maternal and infant health: a cluster randomised trial (COSMIC) was held from 6-7 of March 2017, at the Ocean Bay Hotel in Cape Point.
COSMIC was a European Union research project grant which started in late 2013 in Benin, Burkina Faso and The Gambia. The overall aim was to establish whether maternal and infant health can be improved by implementing (through community health workers) scheduled screening and treatment (CSST) for malaria among pregnant women. It also assessed whether this intervention could increase access to Intermittent Prevent Treatment of Malaria in pregnancy (IPTp), increase antenatal clinic attendance and reduce the consequences of malaria in pregnancy (usually low birth weight, maternal anaemia) in these three countries. The Gambia arm of the study which officially started in early 2014 was conducted at MRC Unit The Gambia (MRCG) and coordinated by Prof Umberto Dalessandro, Unit Director and Theme Leader for Disease Control & Elimination.

World Health Organisation/Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (WHO/TDR) was responsible for conducting a policy panel meeting in each country to inform policy-makers, healthcare providers and researchers with the overall aim of developing any recommended policy and practice changes based on this research. The first-panel meeting for the COSMIC study in The Gambia was held in 2014.

The policy panel meeting was attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Health and National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Finance, Regional Health Teams and MRCG staff. Members from the following research consortium also attended the second policy panel for the COSMIC results in The Gambia.

• Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Consortium Coordinator)
• Prins Leopold Instituut Voor Tropische Geneeskunde, Belgium
• Centre Muraz, Burkina Faso
• MRC Unit The Gambia
• World Health Organisation/S