Research Initiative on Traditional Antimalarial Methods)

Dear Colleagues,

I have recently joined your networks, and this is my introductory message. I
am a junior doctor working in the UK, and in my spare time I help to
coordinate the Research Initiative on Traditional Antimalarial Methods
(RITAM). I have copied below our information sheet and membership
application form. If anyone is interested in joining, please fill out the
form and return it to me by e-mail.

Best wishes

Merlin Willcox (RITAM secretary)


Announcing RITAM
(Research Initiative on Traditional Antimalarial Methods)

Introduction
Malaria is recognised as one of the key priorities for the World Health
Organisation. The programme of research that was drafted from the initial
meetings on malaria in Dakar, Senegal, in 1997 included research into herbal
antimalarials.

However, while research has progressed in other areas of malaria control,
research into herbal antimalarials has not yielded many - if any - results
that can be implemented by malaria control programmes. Discussion of this
topic has been notably absent from international meetings on malaria,
including the recent MIM African Malaria Conference in Durban, despite the
fact that there were several researchers present who are working in this
field. A proposal that was made at the Symposium on "Plants as Medicines" at
the European Congress on Tropical Medicine in Liverpool in September 1998
was raised again in Durban and it was agreed that the Global Initiative for
Traditional Systems of Health (GIFTS) would take the initial steps to
establish a network of researchers interested in herbal antimalarials. This
has been agreed to as part of a formal collaboration between GIFTS and WHO's
Tropical Disease Research (TDR) division. The network will be a component of
the new research initiative to be known as the Research Initiative on
Traditional Anti-Malarials (RITAM).

Who will participate in RITAM?
RITAM is a collaboration between the WHO, the Global Intitiative For
Traditional Systems of Health (GIFTS), University of Oxford, and researchers
and others throughout the world. It is for those who are investigating, or
are interested in, the anti-malarial properties of plants, with a view to
developing or validating local herbal medicines to prevent and/or treat
malaria.

Membership of RITAM is free. Communications will be in English.

Researchers who volunteered their names at the Durban and Moshi meetings,
and others known to be interested in this field, have been contacted, and
invited to send in their name, contact details, and names of any colleagues
who might also be interested in participating.

Aims of RITAM
1. To establish and strengthen links between researchers interested in
research on herbal antimalarials, in different countries and institutions.
2. To catalogue and review current knowledge on herbal antimalarials.
3. To share new ideas and discoveries on herbal antimalarials.
4. To determine research priorities, and avoid replication of research.
5. To make an important global contribution to the control of malaria,
through the use of herbal anti-malarials.


How will RITAM achieve these aims?

1. Contact List: Members are invited to provide a short synopsis of their
work and interests, for circulation to other members, to facilitate contact
and partnerships between researchers with similar interests. Regional and
national networks are being developed in some areas.

2. Database: Members are invited to send in copies of any published or
unpublished work on herbal remedies for malaria, to create a central
database, which all can use and access readily, perhaps via the internet.
Sections of the database will include:
a) treatment seeking and ethnomedical studies
b) ethnobotanical studies
c) pharmacological studies
d) clinical case reports and studies

This database could lead to overviews of the current research, identifying
new research priorities, and avoiding replication of work.

3. Newsletter: Members will be invited to contribute informal pieces for an
electronic newsletter. Articles should discuss research priorities;
methodology; strengthening research links and research capacity; and
implications of current research results. Members are encouraged to respond
using the newsletter's correspondence section. Publications of original
research will be limited to a list of abstracts of recently published (and
unpublished) work on herbal antimalarials, to inform members about the
latest research, and where to find it.

4. Meetings:
a) RITAM held its first international meeting in collaboration with the WHO
to discuss appropriate research targets and methods on herbal antimalarials.
This took place in Moshi, Tanzania, on 8-11 December 1999. The programme and
report are on the internet at http://mim.nih.gov/english/partnerships/.

b) On May 16th � 19th, in Nairobi, a special session is being held at �The
Regional Conference on Medicinal Plants, Traditional Medicines and Local
Communities in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities of the New Millenium�,
a Parallel Session to the Conference of Parties to the Convention on
Biodiversity (CBD). There will be some presentations by RITAM members on
their work, and a display of RITAM activities.

c) A special session focussing on Latin American research is also being
developed for the World Congress on Tropical Medicine to be held in
Cartagena, in Colombia, in August 2000. Details at
http://wwwprof.uniandes.edu.co/~xviftm/cartagena.htm.

d) A meeting on natural products chemistry, with WHO, will be held in Geneva
in September 2000.

e) A session on clinical research and protocols is planned for the Oxford
2000 conference on 18th-22nd September (see http://www.oxford2000.org.uk).


5. Specialist Groups
At the Moshi meeting, it was decided to continue discussions through
electronic networks of members with special interests. These will set
themselves their own targets, for example to develop Standard Operational
Procedures for different research areas. All RITAM members are invited to
join these groups.
The groups are:
a) Policy, Advocacy and Funding
b) Preclinical Studies
c) Clinical Development
d) Insect Repellants, Vector Control and other Measures

It has since been decided that there is a need for two committees to advise
on RITAM projects:
a) Ethical committee: members are required to have previous experience of
serving on ethical committees, and should be available by e-mail to comment
on proposals at short notice.
b) Statistical committee: members should have experience of biological or
medical statistics, and should be willing to provide advice on study
proposals at short notice by e-mail.

All members are able to offer their services to these committees, however
the RITAM executive board reserves the right to consider applications in the
light of the applicant�s past experience.

How to join RITAM?

Simply fill out this questionnaire and return it, via e-mail or post, to:
Dr Gerry Bodeker and Dr Merlin L Willcox
e-mail: merlinwillcox@hotmail.com
Postal Address: GIFTS of Health, Green College, University of Oxford, Oxford
OX2 6HG, UK.

1. Your Contact Details:
Full Name and Title:
Position:

Postal Address:



E-mail address:

Telephone:
Fax:

2. The Contact List:
Would you be willing for your details to be added to the list of contacts,
for circulation to other members? YES / NO
If yes, please supply the following information about yourself, as briefly
as possible:

a) The Present: What is your current post and work?


b) The Past: What research have you conducted on herbal antimalarials?




c) The Future: What can you contribute to future research projects on herbal
antimalarials? Do you hope to do any further research in this area yourself?


3. Specialist Groups:
Would you like to participate in the e-mail discussions of one or more of
the specialist groups? Please tick the relevant group below:
a) Policy, advocacy and funding
b) Preclinical studies
c) Clinical development
d) Insect repellants, vector control and other measures

Would you be interested in joining an advisory committee? If so, please tick
the relevant committee below, and provide details of your experience in this
area.
a) Ethical committee
b) Statistical committee


4. The Database:

Your Work: please list any studies you have done on herbal antimalarials:
a) Published work: (please supply full reference, and if possible, please
send a copy of the full paper).


b) Unpublished work: (please send a copy of each report).


Other Work: Please also supply details of any other studies on herbal
antimalarials which you know about (especially unpublished, or published in
journals which are not listed on international databases, or published in
languages other than English).


Foreign Language Publications:
Would you be willing to volunteer as a translator for work not published in
English or French? YES/NO
If yes, please specify the language:


5. The Newsletter:
What issues would you like to see discussed in the Newsletter?

Would you like to write a piece for the Newsletter? YES/NO
If yes, please specify what you would like to write about:


6. Meetings:
Would you be interested in attending a future meeting of RITAM (NB: members
will probably have to find their own funding)? YES / NO

Would you like to make a presentation at a future meeting of RITAM?
If yes, please send an abstract.

7. New Members:
If you know anyone else who may be interested in joining RITAM, please give
us their e-mail address or contact details below.

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