Congenital Malaria &Elimination &IPTp &Malaria in Pregnancy Bill Brieger | 25 Jun 2015
Congenital malaria: A neglected global health concern
Reena Sethi, DrPH Candidate in International Health, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Adviser, Jhpiego shares with us the challenges of malaria acquired from the pregnant mother by their newborn child.
Strategies and recommendations to prevent the transmission of HIV from a mother to her child are known but less information is available on the epidemiology and management of malaria transmitted from pregnant women to their newborns. As presented in a review of congenital infections, one of the lesser known effects of malaria in pregnancy is the maternal-fetal transmission of infected erythrocytes that can result in poor perinatal outcomes. While clinical malaria in newborns is rare, most likely due to the transplacental transfer of maternal antibodies and the inhibitory effect of fetal hemoglobin on the development of malaria parasites, it is unclear what the true incidence of this condition is in Africa and Asia.
Recently published studies in Burkina Faso estimated the incidence of congenital malaria to be 2.1% and the prevalence of mother-to-child transmission of asymptomatic malaria to be 18.5% in one health center in Ouagadougou; in one hospital in Papua, Indonesia, congenital malaria was said to occur in 8 out of 1000 live births from 2005 to 2010; and in a study in one hospital in Madhya Pradesh, India, the incidence of congenital malaria was 29 out of 1000 live births. In a study involving six hospitals in Nigeria, the overall incidence of congenital malaria was found to be 5.1%. Transmission has been associated with both Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. The uncertainty and variation in estimates are likely related to the source of the tested blood (umbilical cord blood or infant peripheral blood), presentation of symptoms that are similar to neonatal sepsis, as well as the lack of capacity to conduct high quality diagnostic tests.
Since congenital malaria results from the transmission of parasites from the mother to the baby (presumably through placental transmission), prevention of malaria through the use of IPTp when appropriate reduces maternal parasitemia, most likely resulting in a lower rate of transmission of malaria to the newborn. In a study in Côte d’Ivoire, factors that protected mothers from placental malaria parasitaemia were the use of IPTp (SP) or ITNs during pregnancy and multigravidity. A study in Ibadan, Nigeria found that IPT-SP was effective in preventing maternal and placental malaria as well as improving pregnancy outcomes among parturient women. Researchers in Southern Ghana reported that placental malaria decreased after the implementation of IPTp.
However, in settings where IPTp is ineffective, the effect of alternative strategies, such as intermittent screening and testing in pregnancy (ISTp) on placental malaria should be examined. Little evidence is currently available on the efficacy of ISTp on maternal and newborn outcomes.
Further research also needs to be conducted in diverse settings to develop a standardized definition for congenital malaria and to understand the short and long-term consequences of this condition in order to establish guidelines for diagnosis and treatment. In pre-elimination contexts, where acquired malaria immunity may be reduced, further evidence is needed on the feasibility of screening all febrile babies and following newborns born to women with malaria during pregnancy and of other possible strategies to improve infant outcomes.
Equity &Monitoring Bill Brieger | 21 Jun 2015
Equity, Inequities and Malaria
The World Health Organization has just released a new report entitled, State of inequality: Reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Because of its effort to look across the board at low and middle income countries generally, it does not include more region specific indicators like malaria services. This led us to look at a few recent DHS/MIS (Demographic & Health and Malaria Indicator Surveys) to see what we can learn about equity or its opposite for malaria.
For RNMCH malaria indicators and equity we can examine coverage of long lasting insecticide-treated nets for both pregnant women (abbreviated as “preg < LLIN” in the attached charts) and children below five years of age (child < LLIN), taking of at least two doses of intermittent preventive treatment by recently pregnant women (IPTp2), and finally receipt of artemisinin-based combination therapy for febrile children below five years of age (ACT child, or where ACT not specified AMD child for antimalarial drug).
The equity variables presented in these surveys include residence in a rural or urban area, education of the woman, and wealth quintile. Recent reports from Nigeria (DHS 2013), Malawi (MIS 2014), and Angola (MIS 2011) were examined.
The first issue one notices is that these countries have not achieved the Roll Back Malaria coverage target of 80% that was set for 2010, let along sustained it. One could argue that it is not important to talk about equity until a country demonstrates the health systems capacity to seriously scale up these interventions. On the other hand one could also argue that efforts toward achieving equity at any stage of a program are important as these point to future sustainability and achievement.
The three countries in question each present a very different picture when it comes to equity. Starting with women’s education it is important to note that in two of the countries the proportion women with post secondary is too negligible to analyze separately. The underlying last of access to post-secondary education is an important equity issue in itself.
For Nigeria access to both IPTp and ACTs for children is skewed toward those with higher levels of education. Angola’s coverage is also better for more highly educated women. Malawian women with lower education have better IPTp2 coverage, but the other indicators are mixed.
Rural disparity compared to better urban access to malaria commodities is evident in Angola and Nigeria for all indicators, while Malawi is again mixed. Interestingly in Malawi children in rural areas (41%) show better use of ACTs than those in urban settings (23%).
Angola exhibits the starkest contrast among wealth quintiles with all indicators showing increased coverage as wealth increases. In Nigeria this is true for IPTp and ACTs, but for LLINs, there is a peak in the middle quintile. It is often said in Nigeria that wealthier people prefer screening their homes than sleeping under nets.
Many factors enter into the picture. Malawi which is poorer in terms of GDP that oil-rich Angola and Nigeria has achieved better overall coverage with less pronounced disparities. One should also consider the differences in physical size with implications for program logistics among the countries.
In its own report, WHO says, “Health inequality monitoring is an essential step towards achieving health equity. It has broad applications and can be conducted across diverse health topics. Applying the best practices in health inequality monitoring presents an opportunity to share the state of inequality with stakeholders, indicate areas in need of improvement and track progress over time.” With tools like DHS, MIS and even national health information systems, endemic countries should also monitor their malaria intervention coverage and bring stakeholders together to address equity gaps.
Diagnosis Bill Brieger | 19 Jun 2015
Increased Commodity Availability Improve Malaria Diagnosis among Children Under five in Sokoto State, Nigeria
Zainab Mohammed, Nosa Orobaton, and Mohammed A. Ibrahim from the Targeted States High Impact Project (TSHIP), USAID Nigeria and the JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. are sharing their experiences in Sokoto State, Nigeria concerning the importance of primary care health workers practicing appropriate malaria diagnostics prior to prescribing malaria medicines.
Despite the national efforts to reduce indiscriminate use of antimalarial and to secure improvements in malaria diagnosis, presumptive treatment of malaria is still high in Sokoto State, Nigeria. Just 3% of children under five years with fever had a blood test for malaria (NDHS 2013). Therefore Zainab and colleagues set out to answer the question, “Does increased availability of diagnostic kits improve quality of malaria case management?” Their work was based on the following objectives
- To determine the effect of malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (mRDT) kits availability in malaria case management among children U5 years in Sokoto State.
- To document the effect of multi-strategy approach in improving malaria case management among children under five in Sokoto State.
Their methods included secondary data collection from the Sokoto State Health Management Information System (HMIS) from 2011 to 2014. No mRDTs were supplied to the State in 2011. In August 2012 – 108, 000 and 807, 850 kits were supplied by USAID/PMI through USAID/TSHIP with logistic support from USAID’s JSI/DELIVER to State Medical Store and distributed directly to HF. Service providers were trained on the job. Other activities included house-to-house education and counselling by community volunteers, radio phone in programs, face-to-face dialogue by ward development committees and radio jingles.
They found that although only 3% of health facilities (HF) provided malaria diagnostic services across the State, the percent of all facilities that provided the service had increased to 22% in August 2012 through 2015. The percent of children under five with fever symptoms and had confirmatory diagnostic tests for malaria was 19% and 20% in 2011 and 2012 respectively. By 2013, the coverage had tripled to 57% and had quadrupled to 84% in 2014. Overall, the percent of fever cases subjected to confirmatory diagnosis for malaria increased from 19% in 2011 to 84% in 2014.
In conclusion, the observed improvement in quality of malaria case management can be attributed to the availability of free mRDT at the HFs. Also contributing to the outcome were continuous training & mentoring of service providers and quality of awareness creation at community and HF level as well as through the media. Therefore, it is recommended that commodity logistics in support of supplying mRDT is strengthened to improve quality of malaria case management.
Borders &Elimination &Indoor Residual Spraying &Monitoring &Surveillance &Vector Control Bill Brieger | 13 Jun 2015
Moving toward Malaria Elimination in Botswana
The just concluded 2015 Global Health Conference in Botswana, hosted by Boitekanelo College at Gaborone International Convention Centre on 11-12 June provided us a good opportunity to examine how Botswana is moving toward malaria elimination. Botswana is one of the four front line malaria elimination countries in the Southern African Development Community and offers lessons for other countries in the region. Combined with the 4 neighboring countries to the north, they are known collectively as the “Elimination Eight”.
The malaria elimination countries are characterised by low leves of transmission in focal areas of the country, often in seasonal or epidemic form. The pathway to malaria elimination requires that a country or defined areas in a country reach a slide positivity rates during peak malaria season of < 5%.
Chihanga Simon et al. provide us a good outline of 60+ years of Botswana’s movements along the pathway beginning with indoor residual spraying (IRS) in the 1950s. Since then the country has expanded vector control to strengthened case management and surveillance. Particular recent milestones include –
- 2009: Malaria elimination policy required all cases to be tested before treatment malaria elimination target set for 2015
- 2010: Malaria Strategic Plan 2010–15 using recommendations from programme review of 2009; free LLINs
- 2012: Case-based surveillance introduced
The national malaria elimination strategy includes the following:
- Focus distribution LLIN & IRS in all transmission foci/high risk districts
- Detect all malaria infections through appropriate diagnostic methods and provide effective treatment
- Develop a robust information system for tracking of progress and decision making
- Build capacity at all levels for malaria elimination
Botswana like other malaria endemic countries works with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership to compile an annual road map that identifies progress made and areas for improvement. The 2015 Road Map shows that –
- 116,229 LLINs distributed during campaigns in order to maintain universal coverage in the 6 high risk districts
- 200,721 IRS Operational Target structures sprayed
- 2,183,238 RDTs distributed and 9,876 microscopes distributed
- While M&E, Behavior Change, and Program Management Capacity activities are underway
Finally the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) provides quarterly scorecards on each member. Botswana is making a major financial commitment to its malaria elimination commodity and policy needs. There is still need to sustain high levels of IRS coverage in designated areas.
Monitoring and evaluation is crucial to malaria elimination. Botswana has a detailed M&E plan that includes a geo-referenced surveillance system, GIS and malaria database training for 60 health care workers, traininf for at least 80% of health workers on Case Based Surveillance in 29 districts, and regular data analysis and feedback.
M&E activities also involve supervision visits for mapping of cases, foci and interventions, bi-annual malaria case management audits, enhanced diagnostics through PCR and LAMP as well as Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviour, and Practice surveys.
Malaria elimination activities are not simple. Just because cases drop, our job is easier. Botswana, like its neighbors in the ‘Elimination Eight’ is putting in place the interventions and resources needed to see malaria really come to an end in the country. Keep up the good work!