PSI GEMS project

In order to contribute to the malaria elimination goal, Population Service International (PSI), a non-profit global health organization, launched the project “the Greater Mekong Subregion Elimination of Malaria through Surveillance (GEMS)” in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Between 2016 and 2019, GEMS engaged with a range of health care providers (i.e. clinics and pharmacies), community-based health providers (i.e. volunteer malaria-workers), and community-based outlets (i.e. grocery shops) to accelerate malaria case management, especially to foster active case detection striving to reach ‘hard-to-reach’ at-risk populations [37]. The GEMS provided these providers with RDTs, referral cards, and anti-malarial drugs, according to the characteristics of each national health system, and trained them to identify suspected cases and test, accurately treat or refer, and rapidly report cases to PSI. Data reported were incorporated into the national malaria control programme’s surveillance system. PSI tailored the project strategies to each country setting, including the roles of collaborative providers that were based on the requirements of the national health systems.