Tropical Health Matters

Press Release: Artificial Intelligence and Innovations in Public Health Promotion Practice to Take Center Stage in Ibadan

The growing role of Artificial Intelligence in public health will take centre stage in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, as the Health Promotion and Education Alumni Association, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (HPEAAICM), kicks off her 2024 Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference, between September 24 to 26, 2024, from 9 am daily, at the Koltol Hotel, Ikolaba, Ibadan.

The hybrid event brings together public health practitioners, program managers, researchers, policymakers, and students from across Nigeria and internationally. The conference will focus on an increasingly critical topic: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its innovative applications in public health promotion.

Bright Orji, HPEAAICM president says “this year’s theme, “Artificial Intelligence and Innovations in Public Health Promotion Practice,” reflects the growing role AI plays in transforming healthcare systems globally. AI-driven innovations are not only revolutionizing disease detection, diagnosis, and treatment but are also enhancing the ability of public health practitioners to design, implement, and evaluate health promotion programs”.

AI and Public Health

Artificial Intelligence, often referred to as the driving force behind the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” is revolutionizing every sector, including healthcare. In public health, AI’s ability to process large amounts of data rapidly and with remarkable accuracy makes it a game-changer. Its applications span across:

• Disease Surveillance and Prevention: AI systems can analyze vast quantities of data to predict disease outbreaks, track epidemic patterns, and monitor real-time public health issues. This capacity for early detection is particularly relevant in the global fight against pandemics, as seen during the COVID-19 crisis.
• Personalized Health Promotion: AI-powered tools can tailor public health interventions to individual or community needs, improving health outcomes by promoting behaviors that are most effective for specific populations. These tools can analyze data from various sources such as social media, wearable health devices, and electronic health records, providing public health professionals with actionable insights.
• Health Communication and Education: AI chatbots and virtual health assistants are enhancing patient engagement and communication. These tools help in delivering health education to people, addressing misconceptions, and providing reliable health information in real-time. They are proving especially useful in low-resource settings, where healthcare personnel are often overstretched.
• Predictive Analytics in Health Promotion: AI algorithms can help anticipate health risks based on behavioral patterns, enabling health professionals to implement targeted preventive interventions. These predictive models can guide public health strategies for addressing lifestyle-related diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.

Dr. Orji emphasizes that the use of AI in these capacities promises to strengthen health systems, improve efficiency, and ensure that public health interventions are data-driven and evidence-based. However, “these technologies also raise important questions regarding equity, privacy, and ethical use, which will be key points of discussion during the conference”, he adds.

The event will feature keynote presentations, panel discussions, and breakout sessions that explore cutting-edge AI innovations and their real-world applications in public health. Eminent scholars from Nigeria and abroad will lead conversations on various aspects of AI in health promotion, shedding light on the opportunities and challenges these technologies present.

Why You Should Attend

This year’s Conference will bring key thematic opportunities to attendees including:

1. Networking Opportunities: Engage with a diverse group of public health practitioners, technology innovators, policymakers, and academics to discuss collaborative solutions to global health challenges.
2. Knowledge Exchange: Gain insights into how AI is being integrated into public health strategies, from improving surveillance and health promotion to transforming patient care and health education.
3. Influencing Policy: Participate in discussions that can help shape the future of health policy, especially concerning the ethical use of AI in public health promotion.
4. Capacity Building: Discover AI-driven tools and technologies that can enhance the effectiveness of public health programs, especially in resource-constrained settings like sub-Saharan Africa.
5. Global Perspective with Local Impact: The event will contextualize AI advancements within the Nigerian and broader African public health systems, ensuring that discussions remain relevant to local needs and priorities.

AI in Nigerian Public Health

In Nigeria, where public health systems face significant challenges, AI offers tremendous potential to strengthen health promotion efforts. The country continues to battle high maternal and child mortality rates, infectious disease outbreaks, and the rise of non-communicable diseases. However, AI innovations can improve data management and health service delivery in these areas, allowing health officials to track outbreaks, assess health risks, and intervene promptly, says Dr. Orji.

AI-powered telemedicine is already transforming healthcare delivery in remote regions of Nigeria, where access to physical health facilities is limited. During the COVID-19 pandemic, AI-assisted health surveillance tools helped track and predict outbreaks, leading to more effective responses.

The 2024 HPEAAICM Scientific Conference will delve into these success stories, highlighting the lessons learned and offering a roadmap for future AI integration in public health, Dr. Orji added.

Signed

Dr. Bright Orji, MPH, Ph.D
President, HPEAAICM

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Registration and Contact Information:

Registration for the event is now open. Participants can register for either in-person or virtual attendance via the HPEAAICM website (https://hpeaaicm.org/2024-agm/registration/).

For further inquiries and to confirm your participation, please contact:

Dr. Bright Orji, MPH, Ph.D
President, HPEAAICM
Phone: +234 803 709 6014
Email: OrjiBright.Clement@jhpiego.org

About HPEAAICM:

The Health Promotion and Education Alumni Association of the University of Ibadan College of Medicine (HPEAAICM) is dedicated to advancing the field of public health through education, innovation, and collaboration. The association brings together alumni who are leading public health professionals, researchers, and educators from across Nigeria and beyond.  Join us as we explore the intersection of AI and public health promotion—an exciting journey towards a healthier future driven by technology and innovation!

The Health Promotion and Education Alumni Association of the University of Ibadan College of Medicine (HPEAAICM) is hosting its Second Annual General Meeting & Scientific Conference from September 24 to 26, 2024. The association represents graduates of the first African graduate level professional and academic Master of Public Health program, which started at the University of Ibadan in 1975 as the African Regional Health Education Center (ARHEC) within the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine. At the beginning of this century ARHEC became the Department of Health Promotion and Education within the first ever Faculty of Public Health in Nigeria.

The association aims to keep members up to date on new knowledge and practices that have arisen since they obtained their MPH. In addition, the association arranges seminars, conferences, and symposia on issues of public health concerns and provides a link between the health promotion specialists and the public.

The main theme of this year’s Conference is “Artificial Intelligence and Innovations In Public Health Promotion Practice.” Sub-Themes include the following:

• Digital Health Technologies: Implication for Health Promotion Strategies in community Engagement.
• Artificial Intelligence application in Disease Surveillance, Outbreak, Prediction and prevention
• Use of Artificial Intelligence in addressing Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health
• Enhancing the implementation of Health Promotion Policy through digital Health Technologies
• Health Promotion: A Key Strategy for Reproductive, maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Elderly Health plus Nutrition (RMNCAEH+N) intervention.
• Current trends in the use of health promotion principle for climate change environmental health promotion
• Addressing Global Health challenges of Communicable and Non-communicable diseases through Health Promotion Initiatives.

For more information and inquiries send a mail to: abstract@hpeaaicm.org

In 2001 the first Africa Malaria Day (AMD) was observed. The opportunity to mark progress and exhort increased efforts for the continent continued through 2007. Then in 2008, the concept of World Malaria Day (WMD) took over, though it could not be denied that the bulk of malaria morbidity, mortality and intervention still was focused on African countries. Other countries have made progress such as the recent certification of malaria elimination in Argentina and El Salvador, but twenty years after the first AMD/WMD, Africa is still leading the way for creative, sustained intervention against the disease, despite threats to resources from economic downturns and new pandemic diseases.

Below we go straight to Africa to share activities and observances of WMD 2021 from Jhpiego’s African Malaria Technical Officers. After reading through, please watch “Jhpiego Leaves No One Behind | World Malaria Day, 2021″ on YouTube.

“Saramed” from Guinea reports that Guinea, like other countries in the world, celebrates World Malaria Day under the theme: ” Zero Malaria, Draw a Line on Malaria “. We are currently conducting the following activities:

• Lectures and debates on malaria in medical faculties and health schools;
• Animation of debate programs on malaria in public and private radios and televisions of the country,
• Advocacy and sensitization of religious and other influential people
• Carrying out a package of activities (administration of IPT to pregnant women who have missed their ANC appointment, community distribution of LLINs, screening and treatment of confirmed cases, awareness raising on malaria) in high incidence localities.

These activities is in line with the WHO approach of “high burden, high impact”.

Noella Umulisa reports that the WMD celebration took place in Eastern Province, in Bugesera district in the Mareba sector. Due to COVID-19 pandemic ,only 100 persons were invited to the event.This year’s the national theme is “Zero Malaria starts with me”.

Key activities during the event included …

• Visit of breeding sites under sentinel surveillance
• Visit of indoor residual spraying (IRS) sites
• Launching of the Awareness of the population using drones on the ongoing IRS campaign in this time of COVID-19
• Song by CHWs
• Certificate to Integrated Vector Management (IVM) Training of Trainers who will train others up to village level
• Speech of the Director General ,the guest of honor.

From Burkina Faso, Yousseff Sawadogo and Moumouni Bonkoungou shared photos of the celebration that featured a giant Insecticide-Treated  Net, a speech by the US Ambassador, a malaria song composed by a nurse, an official speech by the President of the National Assembly, and national recognition given to one of the current Jhpiego staff members, Thiery Ouedraogo, who at one time also served as director of the national malaria control program. He was decorated by the country’s authorities as a knight of the order of merit.

Bright Orgi from Jhpiego’s TiPToP malaria in pregnancy project in Nigeria ?? shared photos from a series of compound meetings in the community to mark WMD 2021. The meetings focused on malaria prevention and treatment. Provided opportunities to rural communities to ask questions on malaria issues. Here we can see that observance of WMD must be taken to the people who actually suffer from malaria and need to be actively involved in its solution. Deo Cibinda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo share photos of a national celebration, seen to the left.

Finally, As Kristen Vibbert noted, “These are such amazing World Malaria Day stories. I’m so heartened to see all of these great country efforts to remind everyone of how the fight against malaria must continue despite the Covid-19 pandemic.”  Charles Wanga tweeted, “We know how to defeat #malaria. But that’s not enough. We must do more to save pregnant women and children from the deadly scourge. This #WorldMalariaDay and everyday, because@Jhpiego leaves no one behind in our fight to #EndMalaria for good in Africa, and everywhere”

Forty-five years ago, this week I arrived in Ibadan Nigeria to visit my MPH classmate, Joshua Adeniyi, and meet the faculty of the newly established African Regional Health Education Centre (ARHEC). A highlight of those meetings was seeing Prof Ade Lucas who as head of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine (PSM), which housed ARHEC), had supported the partnership of the University of Ibadan, Federal Ministry of Health, and the World Health Organization that created ARHEC as the first Africa-based professional postgraduate training program in public health education. Prof Lucas had created a multidisciplinary environment where Public Health Education could thrive.

I was convinced to join the faculty of OSM and ARHEC, and by the time I returned in October 1976, Prof Lucas had taken up the directorship of The Special Program of Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), which was initially sponsored by WHO, the World Bank and UNDP. Fortunately, Prof Lucas continued to mentor the ARHEC faculty and by encouraging us to apply for TDR grants ensured that I was well on my way in building a career around social and behavioral interventions to control tropical diseases.

Unfortunately, Prof Lucas left us finally on 25 December 2020. Below are the postings of colleagues to commemorate his life. Idowu Olayinka of the Nigerian Academy of Science outlined some of the many accomplishments of Prof Lucas as follows:

• He was an outstanding medical scientist.
• Former Professor and Head Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the University of Ibadan.
• Founding Director, WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.
• Former Programme Chair, Carnegie Foundation.
• Former Professor of International Health, Harvard University.
• He was the first person ever to receive, in 1995, the highest academic honour of the University of Ibadan, Honorary Fellowship of UI, FUI.

The Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Prof Olayinka Omigbodun adds more to the list. “His achievements and accomplishments are too numerous to list here. These have been documented very well in many books, reports, and newspapers. He was the author of numerous books and articles in refereed public health journals. He was an author of many books including “A Short Textbook of Preventive Medicine for the Tropics”. Books have been written about him including his own autobiography (It Was the Best of Times: From Local to Global Health (2010,” and a biography “The Man: Adetokunbo Lucas” (2011).”

“A recipient of many honorary degrees from Emory University, Tulane University, and University of Ibadan he was also a recipient of academic honors from Harvard where he was a professor of Public health, he was bestowed with numerous awards including Prince Mahidol Award (1999), the Centenary Medal for Life-Time Achievements in Tropical Medicine (2007) and from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) (5 March 2013), to name a few.”

“There can be no question about Prof Lucas being a distinguished teacher of many students was who have become distinguished in their own rights. He was a global leader in Medical Research that has impacted many populations, especially in Africa. The footprints are notable and impactful.”

“When my children and grandchildren ask me who my best teachers while in the Medical School (or thereafter) were, I always list some top 10 teachers to those who imparted knowledge, affected my ambition to be “like them”, impressed me with statements and instructions that continued to ring in my ears till today, or demonstrated acts of exemplary kindness and character, indicated personal interest in my progress and success in life, and showed loving friendship to someone who was once their student or junior colleague. Professor Lucas was one of them.” The Provost refers people to a memorial website that has been created to share tributes, photographs and other memories.

Colleagues who worked with Professor Lucas in TDR or knew him because of TDR have shared their reflections. Jamie Guth said, “Prof Lucas was an amazing man. I felt privileged to have known him and experience the impact of what he started with TDR at WHO – now several generations of top scientists across Africa and many other countries finding solutions to infectious diseases.”

Jane Kayondo Frances Kengeya reacted with, “A giant has fallen. His legacy will live on through those he taught, mentored, influenced, supported and loved. Let’s celebrate his life and thank God that we had a chance to know him. May his soul Rest In eternal peace. May his family and close friends receive the grace to endure the loss.”

Mohamnadou Jabur Cham, observed that, “His contributions to the RCS within TDR were not only impressively significant but indeed phenomenal. An envious legacy especially for young scientists from disadvantaged countries. Adieu Prof. till we meet again.”

We trust that the legacy of Professor Ade Lucas will live on in the many people he has taught and mentored and the many careers he has helped launch in public health, preventive medicine and tropical disease control.

This week started with articles that drew attention to the challenges of malaria in low transmission areas and with low density infections. Malaria Journal has provided several insightful articles toward this end.

Being an island has certainly helped Zanzibar make progress toward malaria elimination as witness the fact that malaria prevalence has remained below 1% for the past decade. Not only does Zanzibar still face threats of infection from the mainland, it may also experience an upsurge locally if residual transmission and the role of human behavior and community actions are not well understood. April Monroe et al. conducted in-depth interviews with community members and local leaders across six sites on Unguja, Zanzibar as well as semi-structured community observations of night-time activities and special events to learn more.

While there was high reported ITN use, there were also times when people were exposed t mosquitoes while being outdoors during biting times. This could be around the house, or at special night events like such as weddings, funerals, and religious ceremonies. Men spent more time outdoors than women. Clearly appropriate interventions and needed and should be promoted in culturally appropriate ways in order to further reduce and eventually eliminate transmission.

Angela Early and colleagues presented findings on a diagnostic process of deep sequencing for understanding the dynamics and complexity of Plasmodium infections, but stress that knowing the lower limit of detection is challenging. They present “a new amplicon analysis tool, the Parallel Amplicon Sequencing Error Correction (PASEC) pipeline, is used to evaluate the performance of amplicon sequencing on low-density Plasmodium DNA samples.”

The authors learned that, “four state-of-the-art tools resolved known haplotype mixtures with similar sensitivity and precision.” They also cautioned that, “Samples with very low parasitemia and very low read count have higher false positive rates and call for read count thresholds that are higher than current default recommendations.” Better understanding of the genetic mix of plasmodium infections as countries move toward low transmission and elimination is crucial for selecting appropriate interventions and evaluating their outcomes.

Hannah Edwards and co-researchers examined conditions for malaria transmission along the Thailand-Myanmar border in areas approaching malaria elimination. While prevalence may be less than 1%, residual transmission still occurs. Transmission occurs not only around residences but in the forests where people work. The researchers therefore looked at the behavior of both humans and insects. Overall, they found that, “Community members frequently stayed overnight at subsistence farm huts or in the forest. Entomological collections showed higher biting rates of primary vectors in forested farm hut sites and in a more forested village setting compared to a village with clustered housing and better infrastructure.”

While mosquitoes preferred to bite inside huts, their threat was magnified by those who did not use long lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs). While out in the farms and forests, people tended to wake early and increase their likelihood of being bitten. The authors discuss the challenges of dual residences in terms of LLIN ownership and even concerning the potential access to indoor residual spraying. The definition for universal net coverage needs to expand from one net per two people to include adequate nets wherever people are located.

The Amazonian area of Brazil is another area working toward malaria elimination, in particular, Plasmodium vivax. Felipe Leão Gomes Murta et al. also looked at the human side of the equation and identified misperceptions by both community members and health workers that could inhibit elimination efforts. They found, “many myths regarding malaria transmission and treatment that may hinder the sensitization of the population of this region in relation to the use of current control tools and elimination strategies, such as mass drug administration (MDA),” and LLINs.

Problematic perceptions included mention by both groups that the use of insecticide-treated nets, may cause skin irritations and allergies. Both community members and health professionals said malaria is “an impossible disease to eliminate because it is intrinsically associated with forest landscapes.” They concluded that such perceptions can be a barrier to control and elimination.

Efforts to eliminate malaria from low transmission settings are an essential to the overall global goals. These four articles tell us that close attention to and better understanding of humans, parasites and mosquitoes is still needed to achieve these goals.

The World Malaria Report shows that malaria cases are up, and even though there are fewer reported cases in 2017 than 2010, the number is greater than 2016. So once again high burden countries are being targeted. Today this focus is on “High Burden to High Impact”, but in 2012-13 it was the “Malaria Situation Room” that also focused on 10 high burden countries.

Progress was being made up to around 2015-16, it then started to reverse. The challenge was not just funding. As the WHO Director General noted in the foreword to the 2018 World Malaria Report (WMR), “Importantly, ‘High burden to high impact’ calls for increased funding, with an emphasis on domestic funding for malaria, and better targeting of resources. The latter is especially pertinent because many people who could have benefited from malaria interventions missed out because of health system inefficiencies.”

Over the years there have never been enough pledged funds to fully achieve targets, but as funding has never reached desired levels, attention is now being drawn more and more to the source of that funding (more emphasis on domestic/endemic countries) and especially how the health system functions to use the funds that are made available. In 1998 during one of the early meetings establishing the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, a speaker stressed that malaria control could not succeed without concomitant health systems strengthening and reform. That 20-year-old thought was prescient for today’s dilemma.

First, what is the funding situation? As outlined in the World Malaria Report …

• In 2017, an estimated US$ 3.1 billion was invested in malaria control and elimination efforts globally by governments of malaria endemic countries and international partners – an amount slighter higher than the figure reported for 2016.
• Governments of endemic countries contributed 28% of total funding (US$ 900 million) in 2017, a figure unchanged from 2016.
• Funding for malaria has remained relatively stable since 2010
• To reach the Global Technical Strategy 2030 targets, it is estimated that annual malaria funding will need to increase to at least US$ 6.6 billion per year by 2020

The question remains – does investment lead to results. The WMR shows, for example, that “Between 2015 and 2017, a total of 624 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs/LLINs), were reported by manufacturers as having been delivered globally. This represents a substantial increase over the previous period 2012–2014, when 465 million ITNs were delivered globally”.

At the same time the report states that, “Households with at least one ITN for every two people doubled to 40% between 2010 and 2017. However, this figure represents only a modest increase over the past 3 years, and remains far from the target of universal coverage.” Is it simply a matter of funding to reach the other 60% of households, or are there serious management problems on the ground?

Then there is the issue of using nets. The WMR traces new ownership and use from 2010 to 2017, and we can see that overall the proportion of the population at risk who slept under a net increased from around 30% to 50%, but only 56% of those with access to a net were sleeping under them. This can be attributed in part but not completely to the adequacy of nets in a household.

We should ask are enough nets getting to the right places, and also are efforts in place to promote their use. Behavior change efforts should be a major component of malaria program management. Even the so called biological challenges to malaria control have a human element. Monkey malaria transmission to people results from deforestation. Malaria parasite resistance to medicines comes from poor drug management on individual and systems levels.

The target year 2030 will be here before we know it. Will malaria still be here, or will countries and donors get serious about malaria financing AND program management?

Our second Guest Posting by Erica Kuhlik examines important questions on the relationship between communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Targeting children of primary school age with health education and behavior change interventions is essential in developing countries.  Due to the success of illness prevention programs targeting children under the age of five in developing countries, more children survive longer than ever before.[1]  This is an incredible achievement for public health, but also means there are more older children at risk of illness and death from diseases like malaria.

For instance, one study in Kenya found that despite living through the most vulnerable first five years, children of primary school age still suffered an average of 25 episodes of illness over the 30-week study period.[2]  Our photo shows an application of this idea where members of the malaria club prepare to present their skit about malaria at Jolly Mercy Primary School in Wakiso District.

The result of chronic illness on children is tragic.  Repeated bouts of malaria can cause anemia, increased susceptibility to other diseases, and long-term neurological problems.[3]  Chronic illness also causes children to miss school and reduces their capacity to succeed.[2] The extent of serious illness among children in developing countries makes them prime targets of health interventions.

Such interventions are met with success because children of primary school age are at a stage in their lives when they are both impressionable and beginning to develop new habits.[4]  Children are open to learning healthy habits and behaviors that will help prevent the diseases to which they are vulnerable, like malaria. Additionally, the aforementioned study showed that in 19% of the illness episodes, children were self-treating using herbal remedies and Western medicines.2

These results show that children have the capacity to take responsibility for their health and also suggest that health education programs can target children with information on disease prevention and treatment.  Children can share what they learn as seen in our photo where a student at Nakatunya Primary School in Soroti District displays her malaria message.

Taken together, children represent a population that can be highly vulnerable to disease, in need of health interventions, and in an impressionable stage of their lives, thus allowing for the opportunity to introduce healthy habits and behaviors to reduce their burden of disease.

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All pictures were taken by the author with permission from August to October 2012.

• [1] Bundy, D., Shaeffer, S., Jukes, M., Beegle, K., Gillespie, A., Drake, L., Lee, S. F., Hoffman, A., Jones, J., Mitchell, A., Barcelona, D., Camara, B., Golmar, C., Savioli, L., Sembene, M., Takeuchi, T., & Write, C. (2006). School-Based Health and Nutrition Programs. In D. Jamison, J. Breman, A. Measham, G. Alleyne, M. Claeson, D. Evans, P. Jha, A. Mills, & P. Musgrove (Eds.), Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries (pp. 1091-1108). New York City: Oxford University Press.
• [2] Geissler, P. W., Nokes, K., Prince, R. J., Achieng’ Odhiambo, R., Aagaard-Hansen, J., & Ouma, J. H. (2000). Children and medicines: self-treatment of common illness among Luo schoolchildren in western Kenya. Social Science & Medicine 50, 1771-1783.
• [3] Malaria Consortium
• [4] Harre, N., & Coveney, A. (2000). School-based scalds prevention: reaching children and their families. Health Education Research, 15(2), 191-202.
• For more information see: Kolucki, B., & Lemish, D. (2011). Communicating with Children: Principles and Practices to Nurture, Inspire, Excite, Educate and Heal. UNICEF.

Our Guest Posting by Erica Kuhlik describes a project in which she was involved for the MSPH degree requirements at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. STOP Malaria is a USAID funded project managed by JHU’s Center for Communications Programs.

Schools have been found to to be an ideal place for young people to learn about malaria. The Stop Malaria Project (SMP) in Uganda has been using an exciting approach to combat the high prevalence of malaria in rural communities: a school health program that teaches children about malaria and empowers them to act as agents of change in their communities. Previous study in Kenya has shown that school children can learn about malaria and other common diseases and have an influence on their peers and families.

The program uses active and participatory learning techniques to teach children about malaria transmission, infection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Participatory learning methods show children how certain behaviors can reduce malaria and also allow children to practice the behaviors, thereby improving their self-efficacy to perform them.  A “Talking Compound” as seen in the photo is one way to help students learn. In these ways, participatory learning empowers children to adopt the promoted behaviors.

The students are also encouraged to share the malaria messages with their peers and families, effectively acting as change agents in their communities.  By empowering children to act as agents of change, school health programs can reach secondary audiences in the community at little or no cost.   Taken together, the use of active learning methods to teach and encourage children to be agents of change is known as the child-to-child approach.

Despite its recent launch, the Stop Malaria Project’s malaria education program already has significant reach.  In its fourth year alone, SMP reached over 350,000 students across Uganda through thousands of health education sessions using the child-to-child approach (The Uganda Stop Malaria Project Annual Performance Report: 2012 Year 4. Kampala, Uganda).

Discussions with these children have shown them to be highly knowledgeable of SMP’s malaria messages about prevention, diagnosis, and treatment and can demonstrate correct insecticide-treated net use as seen here.  Their teachers have used participatory learning techniques by integrating the malaria information into songs, poetry, drama plays, drawings, and posters.  Some children have even reported behavior change in their households as a result of sharing the malaria messages with their parents.

The experience of the Stop Malaria Project demonstrates that school health programs using the child-to-child approach can be implemented in developing countries.  As we can see, the children have developed their own malaria messages. These programs offer the opportunity to reach vulnerable children and their families with valuable health information to improve the local health conditions.

[All pictures were taken by the author with permission from August to October 2012.]