As announced earlier this year, APMEN invited nominations from current and former high-level government officials from member country to serve as Chairpersons of the APMEN Working Groups. It now gives us great pleasure to welcome Prof. Xiao-Nong Zhou, Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar and Dr. Neena Valecha as the incoming Chairs of the Surveillance and Response, Vector Control and Vivax Working Groups, respectively. Each Chairperson brings a wealth of experience and expertise to their respective Working Group.

Surveillance and Response Working Group: Professor Xiao-Nong Zhou has been Director of the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropical Diseases since 2010. He is also serving as Vice Dean, School of Global Health, Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Professor Zhou graduated with a PhD from Copenhagen University, Denmark, in 1994.

Vector Control Working Group: Dr. Muhammad Mukhtar is the Director at Directorate of Malaria Control, Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination in Pakistan and has been working towards developing national policy, strategy, and guidelines for malaria and other Vector-Borne Diseases Control. He is also national Focal Person for Vector-Borne Diseases, Public Health Pesticides management, Integrated Vector Management, and for Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Vivax Working Group: Dr. Neena Valecha, a clinical pharmacologist and malariologist from India, has over 30 years of experience in malaria research and clinical pharmacology. She worked as Regional Adviser, Malaria at the World Health Organization South-East Asia Region and as Director at the ICMR- National Institute of Malaria Research, India. She has served on several national and international committees including Malaria Policy Advisory Committee of WHO.

About APMEN

The Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN) is a sustainable, collaborative network for delivering technical malaria expertise through a brokerage approach to connect National Malaria Programmes with relevant technical information. APLMA and APMEN work together to generate evidence, build capacity, and raise awareness and commitment from our stakeholders to ensure the region remains on track to eliminate malaria by 2030.

The three APMEN Working Groups -- Vector Control, Vivax, and Surveillance & Response -- play a crucial role in coordinating and advocating for capacity strengthening, identifying knowledge gaps, and conducting operational research related to malaria control and elimination. Each Working Group is hosted by an APMEN partner institution and led by a Chair and Co-Chair.