Malaria

The objective of this study was to assess whether the development and implementation of a community health worker project in rural Kenya was associated with an increase in knowledge about malaria and the use of insecticide-treated nets in children under five years of age. [from abstract]

This article outlines a prospective evaluation of the effectiveness of using community health workers as delivery points for ACT and RDTs in the home management of malaria in two districts in Zambia. [from abstract]

This study in western Kenya aimed to evaluate the impact of providing subsidized artemether–lumefantrine, an antimalarial treatment, for febrile children aged 3–59 months through retail providers. [adapted from abstract]

This study investigated the readiness of the public health sector to provide malaria casemanagement in Somalia, a country where there has been no functioning central government for almost two decades. [from abstract]

This article assesses the effectiveness of village health volunteers in performing early diagnosis and treatment to reduce the burden of malaria in Loa PDR. [adapted from abstract]

Information about quality of malaria treatment services of different healthcare providers is needed to know how to improve the treatment of malaria since inappropriate service provision leads to increased burden of malaria. This study determined the technical and perceived quality of malaria treatment services of different types of providers in three urban and three rural areas in southeast Nigeria. [from abstract]

This article evaluates an initiative launched in Kenya to improve malaria case-management through enhanced in-service training and provision of job aids. [from abstract]

Home Management of Malaria (HMM) is a strategy to improve acces to appropriate and effective malaria treatment in the community or home through early recognition of malaria symptoms and prompt treatment. To do this, volunteer members of the communities are trained to recognize fever, to administer treatment to children under five years of age when they find it, and to advise on follow-up treatment and prevention. They are monitored by a trained member of staff, such as a public health officer.

This study evaluated the effect of malaria rapid diagnostic tests on health workers anti-malarial drug prescriptions among outpatients at low level health care facilities within different malaria epidemiological settings in Uganda. [from abstract]

This study assessed community acceptability of the use of rapid diagnostic tests by Ugandan community health workers, locally referred to as community medicine distributors. [from abstract]

This study presents evaluation findings of two different programs targeting private medicine retailers for malaria control in Kenya. Key components of this evaluation were measurement of program performance, including coverage, knowledge, practices, and utilization based on spatial analysis. [from abstract]

The study assessed knowledge and practice of health care providers on current concepts on malaria prophylaxis in pregnancy. [from abstract]

Irrational drug use is contributed by many factors including care providers giving wrong drug information to patients. Dispensing staff in private pharmacy shops play a significant role in pharmaceutical management and provision of relevant information to clinicians and patients, enhancing the improvement of rational medicine use. This report offers an evaluation/staff assessment of pharmacist knowledge in a situation where they function as health workers in dispensing and prescribing medications. [adapted from introduction]

Increased interest in parasite-based malaria diagnosis has led to increased use of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), particularly in rural settings. The scarcity of health facilities and trained personnel in many sub-Saharan African countries means that limiting RDT use to such facilities would exclude a significant proportion of febrile cases. Use of RDTs by volunteer community health workers (CHWs) is one alternative, but most sub-Saharan African countries prohibit CHWs from handling blood, and little is known about CHW ability to use RDTs safely and effectively. [adapted from introduction]

Malaria over-diagnosis in Africa is widespread and costly both financially and in terms of morbidity and mortality from missed diagnoses. An understanding of the reasons behind malaria over-diagnosis is urgently needed to inform strategies for better targeting of antimalarials. [from abstract]

Throughout Africa, the private retail sector has been recognised as an important source of antimalarial treatment, complementing formal health services. However, the quality of advice and treatment at private outlets is a widespread concern, especially with the introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). This research aimed at assessing the performance of the retail sector in rural Tanzania. Such information is urgently required to improve and broaden delivery channels for life-saving drugs. [from abstract]

The objective of this study was to assess whether traditional birth attendants, drug-shop vendors, community reproductive-health workers, or adolescent peer mobilizers could administer intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp) for malaria with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine to pregnant women. The study concludes that the use of the guideline with adequate training significantly improved correctness of malaria treatment with chloroquine at home. Adoption of this mode of intervention is recommended to improve compliance with drug use at home. The applicability for deploying artemisinin-based combination therapy at the community level needs to be investigated.

Many Nigerian children with malaria are treated at home. Treatments are mostly incorrect, due to caregivers’ poor knowledge of appropriate and correct dose of drugs. A comparative study was carried out in two rural health districts in southwest Nigeria to determine the effectiveness of a guideline targeted at caregivers, in the treatment of febrile children using chloroquine. [from abstract]

In the rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of young children affected by malaria have no access to formal health services. Home treatment through mothers of febrile children supported by mother groups and local health workers has the potential to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality. [from author]

The main aim of the study was to estimate how much clinician-time that malaria exacts on Malawi’s Ministry of Health resources. It estimates the proportion of finances that anti-malarial medications exact on the country’s health budget and determines whether the Malawi public health sector had adequate human resources to provide treatment. [adapted from author]

Home-based management of malaria (HMM) is promoted as a major strategy to improve prompt delivery of effective malaria treatment in Africa. The published literature was searched for studies that evaluated the health impact of community- and home-based treatment for malaria in Africa. [from abstract]

Malaria is a major cause of illness and death in Nigeria, and a significant drain on its economy and the poor. Yet most Nigerians do not obtain appropriate treatment for malaria, and depend on informal private providers for anti-malarial drugs (AMDs), largely through patent medicine vendors (PMVs). This study seeks to better understand the role played by PMVs in the provision of AMDs in Nigeria, and to explore ways to improve the regulation and delivery of AMDs. [from summary]

This article evaluates a malaria in-service training for community health nurses working at a village level. The program included a computer-based training package, the first of its kind for health professionals in Gambia. [adapted from abstract]

This article discusses the cost-effectiveness of a recent programme that involved training shopkeepers and community mobilisation for treating childhood fevers in the rural Kilifi District in Kenya. The programme offered workshops for shopkeepers on appropriate treatment for malaria in young children and also ran community information activities, with impact maintained through refresher training and monitoring. [author’s description]

This presentation was given as part of the Christian Health Association’s Conference: CHAs at a Crossroad Towards Achieving Health Millennium Development Goals. It provides an excellent overview of the challenges of Malaria and HIV/AIDS ; discusses the human resource needs in light of these challenges; and how to build and maintain capacity. [from author’s description]

A potentially effective strategy for bringing early, appropriate and low cost treatment of malaria closer to the home is through the use of community health workers. The objective of this study was to determine peoples’ stated and actual preferences for different strategies for improving the timeliness and appropriateness of treatment of malaria before and after the implementation of a community health workers strategy in their community. [from abstract]

This manual was developed to assist district health management teams in countries where malaria is endemic to improve the quality of malaria treatment given by private clinics, pharmacies, shops and kiosks. It gives step-by-step instructions for how to implement a public health activity that will involve wholesalers in communicating malaria guidelines to retailers and private clinics. [author’s description]

The involvement of district-level workers in local-level practical approaches to mainstreaming gender is central to facilitating change and informing health strategies. There are very few practical examples of mainstreaming gender in health, especially at the lower levels of the health sector. One approach is to build the capacity of staff to conduct and respond to gender analysis. [author’s description]

Recent studies have shown evidence of a direct and positive causal link between the number of health workers and health outcomes. Several studies have identified an adequate health workforce as one of the key ingredients to achieving improved health outcomes. This article explores how the Global Fund addresses the challenges of a health workforce bottleneck to the successful implementation of priority disease programmes. [abstract]

These guidelines are designed as a practical tool to help businesses implement effective malaria control programmes in order to protect their employees and the surrounding communities. They are also intended to make the case, from social, economic and business perspectives, for businesses to do so. The guidelines provide companies with a framework for choosing suitable malaria control interventions and give detailed information on how employers can initiate and manage these activities. [author’s description]