Malaria

Namibia has made tremendous gains in malaria control and the epidemiological trend of the disease has changed significantly over the past years. In 2010, the country reoriented from the objective of reducing disease mor bidity and mortality to the goal of achieving malaria elimination by 2020. This manuscript outlines the processes undertaken in strengthening tactical planning and operational frameworks for vector control to facilitate expeditious malaria elimination in Namibia. [from abstract]

The objective of this study is to find the effect of institutional factors on the quality of care. The institutional factors examined were mainly the extent of decentralization between government and health facilities, as well as between health workers and facility administration, the hiring procedure, and job satisfaction. [from abstract]

Malaria is holo-endemic in Burkina Faso and causes approximately 40,000 deaths every year. In 2010, health authorities scaled up community case management of malaria with artemisinin-based combination therapy. Previous trials and pilot project evaluations have shown that this strategy may be feasible, acceptable, and effective under controlled implementation conditions. However, little is known about its effectiveness or feasibility/acceptability under real-world conditions of implementation at national scale. [from abstract]

The use of community health workers to administer prompt treatments is gaining popularity in most sub-Saharan African countries. Their performance is a key challenge because it varies considerably, depending on the context, while being closely associated with the effectiveness of case management strategies. What determines community health workers’ performance is still under debate. Based on a realist perspective, a systematic review recently hypothesized that several mechanisms are associated with good performance and successful community interventions.

The global malaria community needs to work together, to ensure that the early steps towards the end goal of malaria elimination are taken.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the malaria knowledge level and health practices of individuals in SPH intervention areas to individuals without SPH intervention [from abstract]

This article evaluated how stock-outs of the first line antimalarial, medication and non-compliant health worker behavior influence household expenditures during care-seeking for fever in the Ulanga District in Tanzania.

This study assessed the potential differences between urban and rural areas in the implementation of community case management is implemented for malaria and pneumonia and how community health workers are being used alongside other partners in health care provision. [adapted from introduction]

Improving malaria case management is partially dependent on health worker compliance with clinical guidelines. This study assessed health worker factors associated with correct anti-malarial prescribing practices at two sites in rural Tanzania. [from abstract]

This study aimed to identify determinants of caregivers’ use of village malaria workers services for childhood illness and caregivers’ knowledge of malaria management. [adapted from abstract]

The aim of this study was to assess health workers’ perceptions, practices use of malaria diagnostics, prescription behavior and factors affecting adherence to test results at primary health care facilities in Kibaha District, Coast Region, Tanzania. [adapted from abstract]

This article reports on an intervention to enhance the knowledge and behavior of community health workers on providing adequate
education to patients on malaria. [adapted from author]

This article shares various experiences in using mobile phones for malaria programs from news reports and research studies and how the mobile phone is becoming a valuable tool in fighting malaria from improving management of the information flow between health managers, health workers and patients to assisting health workers in parasite diagnosis. [adapted from author]

This cross-sectional study was therefore designed to assess the level of knowledge and practice of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy among health workers. [adapted from abstract]

This review evaluated the effects of a home- or community-based program for treating malaria in a malaria endemic setting through interventions involving training community health workers or mothers. [adapted from author]

The authors describe the design of a cluster-randomized controlled study to investigate the role of sustainable institutional incentives to improve management of malaria in peripheral health facilities. This study will demonstrate whether facility-based rather than individual incentives are compelling enough to change provider behavior and whether these incentives lead to cost savings as a result of targeted drug consumption. [from author]

A recent trial in Kenya showed that text-message reminders on adherence to malaria case-management sent to health workers’ mobile phones improved management of pediatric outpatients by 25 percentage points. This paper examines costs and cost-effectiveness of this intervention. [from abstract]

The study was carried out to determine the knowledge, perception, and practice of malaria monitoring and evaluation among selected health staff, and to identify related socio-demographic factors, including cadre of staff. [from abstract]

This article reports on a successful project using mobile phone technology for rapidly detecting and treating patients with malaria in a remote area of Bangladesh. [adapted from abstract]

The aim of this qualitative pilot study was to investigate primary health workers’ practices which lead to diagnostic and treatment decisions for febrile children under five years of age in Zanzibar rural health facilities and identify primary influences shaping clinical practice, including past training among health workers, types of diagnostic tools used, and educational factors. [from author]

This review assessed evidence on community-based diagnosis and care of malaria including investigation of interventions to improve the quality of services provided by community health workers (CHWs); strengthen referrals by CHWs to facility-based providers; build the capacity of health systems to support community case management; and integrate malaria diagnosis and case management with other health services at the community level. [adapted from summary]

This review looked for evidence for the most effective approach to deliver malaria treatment in developing countries, by public sector, formal and informal private sector, and community health workers. The authors analysed 31 studies to assess providers based on six criteria: knowledge and practice of provider, diagnosis, referral practices, price of medicine, availability of ACT, and treatment coverage and impact on morbidity and mortality. [from abstract]

This study provided an opportunity to assess the influence of health workers’ attitude to the usage of new malaria treatment recommendations. Overall, results showed variations in health workers attitudes and practices regarding new treatment recommendations in terms of type of health facility, ownership and type of health worker at six months post changes and two years later. [from author]

In Senegal, an pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of a malaria treatment program in remote villages by volunteer home care providers. This paper reports the results of the scale-up in the targeted communities and the impact of the strategy on malaria in the formal health sector. [adapted from abstract]

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study to investigate the perceptions and experiences of health workers involved in a a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a novel intervention to improve health worker malaria case management in 107 government health facilities in Kenya. The intervention involved sending text-messages about paediatric outpatient malaria case-management accompanied by motivating quotes to health workers’ mobile phones. [from abstract]

This study describes the process and cost of training to attain competence of lower level health workers to perform malaria RDTs in a public health system setting in eastern Uganda. [from abstract]

Cambodia recently scaled up their Village Malaria Worker (VMW) project by substantially increasing the number of VMWs and expanding the project’s health services to include treatment of fever, diarrhoea, and acute respiratory infections in children under five. This study examined if the scale-up interfered with VMWs’ service quality, actions, and knowledge of malaria control, and analysed VMWs’ overall achievements and perceptions of the newly added health services. [from abstract]

Community case management of malaria is an established route for distribution of anti-malarial drugs in rural areas, but this study examined the feasibility and acceptability of the approach through Community Medicine Distributors (CMDs) in urban areas using before and after implementation studies in five African cities in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Malawi. [adapted from introduction]

By investigating the community-owned resource persons - their demographic characteristics, their reasons for participating in the an urban malaria control program (UMCP), and their work performance - this study outlines how communities can become responsible for malaria control. [adapted from author]

This article describes a community intervention conducted aimed at improving early malaria case management in under five children. Health workers were trained to train community-based women groups in recognizing malaria symptoms, providing first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria and referring severe cases. [adapted from abstract]