Engaging the community in research: lessons learned from the malaria vaccine trial.

When staff of the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research first went into Wosera in 1979, to try and interest the community into participating in malaria research, the traditional warning sign of crossed bamboo sticks constantly blocked their path as they tried to enter the villages. In 2003, the site is a thriving research centre, with many projects under its belt, a successfully executed malaria vaccine trial to its credit, and approximately 13000 people from 29 villages currently participating in demographic surveillance and various research projects. It has been a long road from community suspicion to sustainable community participation, and the field workers have learned many important lessons along the way that can be applicable to research programs in other disease-endemic areas.