In the country the research will be conducted soon when the formalities are done.
This follows a US$7.9mn (SBD$62m) seven-year grant that will accelerate the control of malaria and help eliminate it worldwide.
This was announced this week by the university based in the United States.
The research will be conducted by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (CWRU) as the lead institution of an International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMR).
James Kazura, MD, Professor of International Health and Medicine at Case Western Reserve University will serve as the principle investigator of a project titled "Research to Control and Eliminate Malaria in SE Asia and SW Pacific."
The objective of the research project project is to advance knowledge of how national and regional programs to control and eliminate malaria in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
The research will look at the disease's epidemiology, transmission by the essential mosquito vectors, pathogenesis, and morbidity.
Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands represent a wide spectrum of malaria transmission intensity and disease, as all four types of human malaria exist in mosquitoes and humans who are exposed to these insect vectors that transmit the parasite.
The CWRU center will oversee investigators from the Papua New Guinea, Australia, Switzerland, the Solomon Islands and the United States.
Research conducted in Papua New Guinea will build on more than 20 years of work by Kazura and his peers at Case Western Reserve, and Australian and Papua New Guinean institutions.
The Solomon Islands researchers are new to the research project.
In the country the Vector Bourne Disease Control Program will assisting the research team.
Malaria, one of the world's "big three" diseases, along with tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, has been eliminated from many parts of the globe, but 40 percent of the world's population still live in areas where they are at risk for contracting the disease.
Infection by malaria-causing parasites results in approximately 240 million cases around the globe annually, and causes more than 850,000 deaths each year.
By MOFFAT MAMU
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