A project implemented on Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea by 2017 Tutu Fellow Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba to prevent malaria has won the P3 Impact Award at the 2019 Concordia Summit. In 2016, malaria killed 445,000 people, most were young children in sub-Saharan Africa. The award was announced by the Office of Global Partnerships at the US Department of State, along with the University of Virginia and Concordia. The P3 Impact Award recognizes leading cross-sector collaborations that feature public, private, nonprofit, or non-governmental organizations addressing societal challenges.
The Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Project - BIMEP - is the sixth public-private partnership to win the annual award, and the first to not only win the P3 Impact Award, but to also be selected by the audience from among the finalists for the Audience Choice Award.
Mitoha led two FDA-approved long-term anti-malaria control testing projects on the island. The work he has done has been recognised by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in a paper one the double-blind trial. The series of FDA clinical trials and scientific research capacity-building efforts are transforming Equatorial Guinea into a proving ground for a vaccine that could accelerate the world's elimination of malaria. An effective vaccine would be a game-changer. He was subsequently tipped to become Vice Minister of Health and Social Welfare for the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.
BIMEP addresses malaria morbidity and mortality affecting the population living and working on Bioko Island and informs a broader malaria control strategy for the rest of the African continent. The partnership does this through a long-term public-private funding agreement incorporating the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, partnering with Marathon EG Production Limited, Noble Energy, Atlantic Methanol Production Company, Sanaria Inc., Medical Care Development International, Swiss Tropical and the Public Health Institute. Prior to leading the BIMEP Project, Mitoha was the Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinator at Marathon EG, where he initiated the clinicial trials.
The work has also been recognised by the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in which he is included in a paper titled: Advancing Global Health through Development and Clinical Trials Partnerships: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Assessment of Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of Plasmodium falciparum Sporozoites Vaccine for Malaria in Healthy Equatoguinean Men. The vaccine, Sanaria Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites, has been found safe and well tolerated by those who received it in the double-blind phase 1 trial and results were sufficiently promising for a phase II trial.
You can read more about the award at the US State Department website.
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