With the FACT (Fixed-Dose Artemisinin-Containing Therapies) soon moving into implementation stage, DNDi hosted a FACT Workshop in Nairobi to discuss key issues surrounding ACT implementation in Africa, including obstacles that currently slow and impede implementation, the role of partners in implementation, and key aspects to ensure adequate use. The meeting was attended by representatives from 13 African national malaria control programs, as well as individuals from WHO, Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), sanofi-aventis, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), and Epicentre.

"The greatest challenge to healthcare in the developing world  is the ability to develop tools of modern science that are adapted to the socioeconomic conditions of patients in the developing world," remarked Monique Wasunna, DNDiAfrica, quoted in New-Scientist. September 30, 2006 p.6. “Taking on Neglected Diseases.”

The new HAT Platform Coordinator, Dr. Augustin Kadima Ebeja is a medical doctor from Kasai Oriental in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Dr. Ebeja has over a decade of field experience with MSF-Belgium, including 7 years in national and provincial coordination of the MSF-Belgium HAT project based in Kinshasa and Mbandaka respectively. With additional experience at both the hospital- and health district- levels, Dr. Ebeja also acted for one year as a consultant in DRC for GTZ, the German cooperation for sustainable development. Dr. Ebeja holds a Master’s Degree in Disease Control from the Instutute of Tropical Medecine in Antwerp and currently resides in Kinshasa with his wife and five children.