Malaria control and elimination in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea: Multidisciplinary and collaborative research with island communities, 1985–2024

Sustained research and community engagement are essential to effective malaria control and elimination. In this article, we describe our research activities in Oceania since 1985 and highlight their contribution to our understanding of malaria epidemiology and control. Working in close collaboration with the local communities and the Ministries of Health in Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, our multidisciplinary projects have employed both field and laboratory methods to cover a wide range of topics including intervention implementation and evaluation, social barriers to adoption of interventions, molecular and population genetics of Plasmodium, Anopheles, and humans, and serological markers of malaria transmission and vector exposure. Findings from these studies have enhanced our knowledge of different facets of malaria and informed control interventions toward elimination not only in Oceania but also other endemic areas where elimination is targeted. Recent resurgences of P. vivax in Vanuatu highlight the need for continuing collaborative research to achieve sustainable freedom from malaria.