Posts or Comments 13 November 2024

Case Management &Elimination Bill Brieger | 03 Nov 2018 05:10 am

Multiple Approaches for Malaria Case Management in the Struggle to Reach Pre-Elimination of Malaria

Goodluck Tesha, Zahra Mkomwa, Jasmine Chadewa, Lusekelo Njoge, Abdallah Lusasi, Dunstan Bishanga, Chonge Kitojo, Erik Reaves, George Greer of the USAID Boresha Afya Project, the Tanzanian Ministry of Health, and the US President’s Malaria Initiative shared experiences on the role of malaria case management in pre-elimination efforts at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical medicine and Hygiene. Their results are seen below.

The 5-year USAID Boresha Afya project works in 1,817 facilities in the seven regions of the Lake/Western Zone, where malaria prevalence is high. Since 2016, Boresha Afya has collaborated with the National Malaria Control Program to support the goal of reducing the malaria case fatality rate to below 1% by 2020 by:

  • Promoting universal access to early diagnosis and prompt treatment
  • Providing preventive therapies to vulnerable groups

In the last 15 years, malaria transmission has been cut in half, dropping from about 33% to less than 7.5%. Over the last three malaria indicator surveys, the number of regions with extremely low malaria prevalence (<1%) increased from one (2008) to seven (2016). The percentage of the population living in low-transmission areas (<10% prevalence) increased from 31% in 2000 to 49% in 2015.

The intervention trained providers on quality testing using malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs). Training focused on conducting quality malaria microscopy examinations.

In addition, the team stratified malaria burden using GIS mapping and introduced malaria service and data quality improvement through a malaria dashboard. Community outreach programs were formed in remote areas.

Due to mRDT availability, more suspected malaria cases are tested before malaria treatment is administered. Per national guidelines, all pregnant women should be tested for malaria on their first visit to the clinic. All project regions have met or exceeded the national 80% testing rate target (see Figure 5).

In conclusion, to move toward malaria elimination, Boresha Afya will focus on ensuring more suspected cases are tested at facility level. Prompt treatment positive cases will then follow. Performing more community outreach should increase access to malaria case management in remote areas. Using GIS mapping will rapidly target services.

This poster is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Jhpiego and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

One Response to “Multiple Approaches for Malaria Case Management in the Struggle to Reach Pre-Elimination of Malaria”

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