Dr Lionel Brice Feufack Donfack, Post-doctoral Researcher in the Malaria Research Unit at Institut Pasteur du Cambodge (IPC), just came back from a mission that took place from June 4 to 20, 2023 in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to train our colleagues at the PNG Institute of Medical Research on the Ring Stage Survival Assay (RSA).

RSA was developed several years ago at IPC and is the only in vitro test that allow to identify artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites.

Artemisinin resistance is a threat to malaria elimination and making sure local researchers are able to determine precisely if malaria parasites are resistant or not to this antimalarial drug is of critical importance.