Well-functioning laboratories with trained staff are the backbone of Tanzania's public health systems. They are critical to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing surveillance of malaria. The US President’s Malaria Initiative has been supporting the development of laboratory expertise in detection and monitoring of antimalarial drug resistance markers in Tanzania since 2016. This work started by building the capacity of two National Institute for Medical Research Tanga Centre (NIMR Tanga) staff by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on molecular analyses of therapeutic efficacy study (TES) samples in 2016. It was followed by further training in 2017 and 2019 in which CDC trained three NIMR Tanga staff members.

Recognizing the importance of capacity strengthening for successful malaria control in the country; USAID Okoa Maisha Dhibiti Malaria (“Save Lives, End Malaria”) provided support for public health systems experts to detect and monitor antimalarial drug resistance markers. Through NIMR Tanga technical experts, a two week training was conducted where nine laboratory technical staff from all Tanzanian institutions involved in antimalarial therapeutic study were trained.

These trained technical experts have added up the number of local staff members with hands-on skills in detection of antimalarial drug resistance markers in the country. They will be involved in the subsequent analysis of TES samples to further strengthen their skills.