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Ndayishimiye JC, Teg-Nefaah Tabong P. Spatial distribution and determinants of intermittent preventive treatment for malaria during pregnancy: a secondary data analysis of the 2019 Ghana malaria indicators survey. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 2024; 24:379. [PMID: 38769513 PMCID: PMC11103814 DOI: 10.1186/s12884-024-06566-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 05/06/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Malaria during pregnancy is associated with poor maternal, foetal, and neonatal outcomes. To prevent malaria infection during pregnancy, the World Health Organization recommended the use of intermittent preventive therapy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) in addition to vector control strategies. Although Ghana's target is to ensure that all pregnant women receive at least three (optimal) doses of SP, the uptake of SP has remained low; between 2020 and 2022, only 60% of pregnant women received optimal SP during their most recent pregnancy. This study sought to map the geospatial distribution and identify factors associated with SP uptake during pregnancy in Ghana. METHODS Secondary data analysis was conducted using the 2019 Ghana Malaria Indicator Survey dataset. The data analysed were restricted to women aged 15-49 years who reported having a live birth within the two years preceding the survey. A modified Poisson regression model was used to determine factors associated with SP uptake during pregnancy. Geospatial analysis was employed to map the spatial distribution of optimal SP uptake across the ten regions of Ghana using R software. RESULTS The likelihood that pregnant women received optimal SP correlated with early initiation of first antenatal care (ANC), number of ANC contacts, woman's age, region of residence, and family size. Overall, the greater the number of ANC contacts, the more likely for pregnant women to receive optimal SP. Women with four or more ANC contacts were 2 times (aPR: 2.16; 95% CI: [1.34-3.25]) more likely to receive optimal SP than pregnant women with fewer than four ANC contacts. In addition, early initiation and a high number of ANC contacts were associated with a high number of times a pregnant woman received SP. Regarding spatial distribution, a high uptake of optimal SP was significantly observed in the Upper East and Upper West Regions, whereas the lowest was observed in the Eastern Region of Ghana. CONCLUSIONS In Ghana, there were regional disparities in the uptake of SP during pregnancy, with the uptake mainly correlated with the provision of ANC services. To achieve the country's target for malaria control during pregnancy, there is a need to strengthen intermittent preventive treatment for malaria during pregnancy by prioritizing comprehensive ANC services.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Claude Ndayishimiye
- Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
| | - Philip Teg-Nefaah Tabong
- Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Legon, Accra, Ghana
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2
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Wong S, Flegg JA, Golding N, Kandanaarachchi S. Comparison of new computational methods for spatial modelling of malaria. Malar J 2023; 22:356. [PMID: 37990242 PMCID: PMC10664662 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-023-04760-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Geostatistical analysis of health data is increasingly used to model spatial variation in malaria prevalence, burden, and other metrics. Traditional inference methods for geostatistical modelling are notoriously computationally intensive, motivating the development of newer, approximate methods for geostatistical analysis or, more broadly, computational modelling of spatial processes. The appeal of faster methods is particularly great as the size of the region and number of spatial locations being modelled increases. METHODS This work presents an applied comparison of four proposed 'fast' computational methods for spatial modelling and the software provided to implement them-Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA), tree boosting with Gaussian processes and mixed effect models (GPBoost), Fixed Rank Kriging (FRK) and Spatial Random Forests (SpRF). The four methods are illustrated by estimating malaria prevalence on two different spatial scales-country and continent. The performance of the four methods is compared on these data in terms of accuracy, computation time, and ease of implementation. RESULTS Two of these methods-SpRF and GPBoost-do not scale well as the data size increases, and so are likely to be infeasible for larger-scale analysis problems. The two remaining methods-INLA and FRK-do scale well computationally, however the resulting model fits are very sensitive to the user's modelling assumptions and parameter choices. The binomial observation distribution commonly used for disease prevalence mapping with INLA fails to account for small-scale overdispersion present in the malaria prevalence data, which can lead to poor predictions. Selection of an appropriate alternative such as the Beta-binomial distribution is required to produce a reliable model fit. The small-scale random effect term in FRK overcomes this pitfall, but FRK model estimates are very reliant on providing a sufficient number and appropriate configuration of basis functions. Unfortunately the computation time for FRK increases rapidly with increasing basis resolution. CONCLUSIONS INLA and FRK both enable scalable geostatistical modelling of malaria prevalence data. However care must be taken when using both methods to assess the fit of the model to data and plausibility of predictions, in order to select appropriate model assumptions and parameters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Spencer Wong
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
| | - Jennifer A Flegg
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
| | - Nick Golding
- Telethon Kids Institute, Perth Children's Hospital, 15 Hospital Ave, Nedlands, WA, 6009, Australia
- Curtin University, Kent St, Bentley, WA, 6102, Australia
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3
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Thawer SG, Golumbeanu M, Lazaro S, Chacky F, Munisi K, Aaron S, Molteni F, Lengeler C, Pothin E, Snow RW, Alegana VA. Spatio-temporal modelling of routine health facility data for malaria risk micro-stratification in mainland Tanzania. Sci Rep 2023; 13:10600. [PMID: 37391538 PMCID: PMC10313820 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-37669-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/26/2023] [Indexed: 07/02/2023] Open
Abstract
As malaria transmission declines, the need to monitor the heterogeneity of malaria risk at finer scales becomes critical to guide community-based targeted interventions. Although routine health facility (HF) data can provide epidemiological evidence at high spatial and temporal resolution, its incomplete nature of information can result in lower administrative units without empirical data. To overcome geographic sparsity of data and its representativeness, geo-spatial models can leverage routine information to predict risk in un-represented areas as well as estimate uncertainty of predictions. Here, a Bayesian spatio-temporal model was applied on malaria test positivity rate (TPR) data for the period 2017-2019 to predict risks at the ward level, the lowest decision-making unit in mainland Tanzania. To quantify the associated uncertainty, the probability of malaria TPR exceeding programmatic threshold was estimated. Results showed a marked spatial heterogeneity in malaria TPR across wards. 17.7 million people resided in areas where malaria TPR was high (≥ 30; 90% certainty) in the North-West and South-East parts of Tanzania. Approximately 11.7 million people lived in areas where malaria TPR was very low (< 5%; 90% certainty). HF data can be used to identify different epidemiological strata and guide malaria interventions at micro-planning units in Tanzania. These data, however, are imperfect in many settings in Africa and often require application of geo-spatial modelling techniques for estimation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sumaiyya G Thawer
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland.
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
| | - Monica Golumbeanu
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Samwel Lazaro
- Ministry of Health, Dodoma, Tanzania
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Frank Chacky
- Ministry of Health, Dodoma, Tanzania
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Khalifa Munisi
- Ministry of Health, Dodoma, Tanzania
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Sijenunu Aaron
- Ministry of Health, Dodoma, Tanzania
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Fabrizio Molteni
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Christian Lengeler
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Emilie Pothin
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- Clinton Health Access Initiative, New York, USA
| | - Robert W Snow
- Population Health Unit, KEMRI-Welcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Victor A Alegana
- World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
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4
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The use of routine health facility data for micro-stratification of malaria risk in mainland Tanzania. Malar J 2022; 21:345. [DOI: 10.1186/s12936-022-04364-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 11/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Current efforts to estimate the spatially diverse malaria burden in malaria-endemic countries largely involve the use of epidemiological modelling methods for describing temporal and spatial heterogeneity using sparse interpolated prevalence data from periodic cross-sectional surveys. However, more malaria-endemic countries are beginning to consider local routine data for this purpose. Nevertheless, routine information from health facilities (HFs) remains widely under-utilized despite improved data quality, including increased access to diagnostic testing and the adoption of the electronic District Health Information System (DHIS2). This paper describes the process undertaken in mainland Tanzania using routine data to develop a high-resolution, micro-stratification risk map to guide future malaria control efforts.
Methods
Combinations of various routine malariometric indicators collected from 7098 HFs were assembled across 3065 wards of mainland Tanzania for the period 2017–2019. The reported council-level prevalence classification in school children aged 5–16 years (PfPR5–16) was used as a benchmark to define four malaria risk groups. These groups were subsequently used to derive cut-offs for the routine indicators by minimizing misclassifications and maximizing overall agreement. The derived-cutoffs were converted into numbered scores and summed across the three indicators to allocate wards into their overall risk stratum.
Results
Of 3065 wards, 353 were assigned to the very low strata (10.5% of the total ward population), 717 to the low strata (28.6% of the population), 525 to the moderate strata (16.2% of the population), and 1470 to the high strata (39.8% of the population). The resulting micro-stratification revealed malaria risk heterogeneity within 80 councils and identified wards that would benefit from community-level focal interventions, such as community-case management, indoor residual spraying and larviciding.
Conclusion
The micro-stratification approach employed is simple and pragmatic, with potential to be easily adopted by the malaria programme in Tanzania. It makes use of available routine data that are rich in spatial resolution and that can be readily accessed allowing for a stratification of malaria risk below the council level. Such a framework is optimal for supporting evidence-based, decentralized malaria control planning, thereby improving the effectiveness and allocation efficiency of malaria control interventions.
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5
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Stratification at the health district level for targeting malaria control interventions in Mali. Sci Rep 2022; 12:8271. [PMID: 35585101 PMCID: PMC9117674 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-11974-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Mali. Between 2017 and 2020, the number of cases increased in the country, with 2,884,827 confirmed cases and 1454 reported deaths in 2020. We performed a malaria risk stratification at the health district level in Mali with a view to proposing targeted control interventions. Data on confirmed malaria cases were obtained from the District Health Information Software 2, data on malaria prevalence and mortality in children aged 6-59 months from the 2018 Demographic and Health Survey, entomological data from Malian research institutions working on malaria in the sentinel sites of the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), and environmental data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A stratification of malaria risk was performed. Targeted malaria control interventions were selected based on spatial heterogeneity of malaria incidence, malaria prevalence in children, vector resistance distribution, health facility usage, child mortality, and seasonality of transmission. These interventions were discussed with the NMCP and the different funding partners. In 2017-2019, median incidence across the 75 health districts was 129.34 cases per 1000 person-years (standard deviation = 86.48). Risk stratification identified 12 health districts in very low transmission areas, 19 in low transmission areas, 20 in moderate transmission areas, and 24 in high transmission areas. Low health facility usage and increased vector resistance were observed in high transmission areas. Eight intervention combinations were selected for implementation. Our work provides an updated risk stratification using advanced statistical methods to inform the targeting of malaria control interventions in Mali. This stratification can serve as a template for continuous malaria risk stratifications in Mali and other countries.
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6
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Giorgi E, Macharia PM, Woodmansey J, Snow RW, Rowlingson B. Maplaria: a user friendly web-application for spatio-temporal malaria prevalence mapping. Malar J 2021; 20:471. [PMID: 34930265 PMCID: PMC8686323 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-021-04011-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 12/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Model-based geostatistical (MBG) methods have been extensively used to map malaria risk using community survey data in low-resource settings where disease registries are incomplete or non-existent. However, the wider adoption of MBG methods by national control programmes to inform health policy decisions is hindered by the lack of advanced statistical expertise and suitable computational equipment. Here, Maplaria, an interactive, user-friendly web-application that allows users to upload their own malaria prevalence data and carry out geostatistical prediction of annual malaria prevalence at any desired spatial scale, is introduced. METHODS In the design of the Maplaria web application, two main criteria were considered: the application should be able to classify subnational divisions into the most likely endemicity levels; the web application should allow only minimal input from the user in the set-up of the geostatistical inference process. To achieve this, the process of fitting and validating the geostatistical models is carried out by statistical experts using publicly available malaria survey data from the Harvard database. The stage of geostatistical prediction is entirely user-driven and allows the user to upload malaria data, as well as vector data that define the administrative boundaries for the generation of spatially aggregated inferences. RESULTS The process of data uploading and processing is split into a series of steps spread across screens through the progressive disclosure technique that prevents the user being immediately overwhelmed by the length of the form. Each of these is illustrated using a data set from the Malaria Indicator carried out in Tanzania in 2017 as an example. CONCLUSIONS Maplaria application provides a user-friendly solution to the problem making geostatistical methods more accessible to users that have not undertaken formal training in statistics. The application is a useful tool that can be used to foster ownership, among policy makers, of disease risk maps and promote better use of data for decision-making in low resource settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emanuele Giorgi
- Centre for Health Informatics, Computing, and Statistics, Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
| | - Peter M Macharia
- Centre for Health Informatics, Computing, and Statistics, Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.,Population Health Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Jack Woodmansey
- Centre for Health Informatics, Computing, and Statistics, Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
| | - Robert W Snow
- Population Health Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.,Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Barry Rowlingson
- Centre for Health Informatics, Computing, and Statistics, Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
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7
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Alegana VA, Macharia PM, Muchiri S, Mumo E, Oyugi E, Kamau A, Chacky F, Thawer S, Molteni F, Rutazanna D, Maiteki-Sebuguzi C, Gonahasa S, Noor AM, Snow RW. Plasmodium falciparum parasite prevalence in East Africa: Updating data for malaria stratification. PLOS GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 1:e0000014. [PMID: 35211700 PMCID: PMC7612417 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
The High Burden High Impact (HBHI) strategy for malaria encourages countries to use multiple sources of available data to define the sub-national vulnerabilities to malaria risk, including parasite prevalence. Here, a modelled estimate of Plasmodium falciparum from an updated assembly of community parasite survey data in Kenya, mainland Tanzania, and Uganda is presented and used to provide a more contemporary understanding of the sub-national malaria prevalence stratification across the sub-region for 2019. Malaria prevalence data from surveys undertaken between January 2010 and June 2020 were assembled form each of the three countries. Bayesian spatiotemporal model-based approaches were used to interpolate space-time data at fine spatial resolution adjusting for population, environmental and ecological covariates across the three countries. A total of 18,940 time-space age-standardised and microscopy-converted surveys were assembled of which 14,170 (74.8%) were identified after 2017. The estimated national population-adjusted posterior mean parasite prevalence was 4.7% (95% Bayesian Credible Interval 2.6-36.9) in Kenya, 10.6% (3.4-39.2) in mainland Tanzania, and 9.5% (4.0-48.3) in Uganda. In 2019, more than 12.7 million people resided in communities where parasite prevalence was predicted ≥ 30%, including 6.4%, 12.1% and 6.3% of Kenya, mainland Tanzania and Uganda populations, respectively. Conversely, areas that supported very low parasite prevalence (<1%) were inhabited by approximately 46.2 million people across the sub-region, or 52.2%, 26.7% and 10.4% of Kenya, mainland Tanzania and Uganda populations, respectively. In conclusion, parasite prevalence represents one of several data metrics for disease stratification at national and sub-national levels. To increase the use of this metric for decision making, there is a need to integrate other data layers on mortality related to malaria, malaria vector composition, insecticide resistance and bionomic, malaria care-seeking behaviour and current levels of unmet need of malaria interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor A. Alegana
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
| | - Peter M. Macharia
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Health Informatics, Computing, and Statistics, Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
| | - Samuel Muchiri
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Eda Mumo
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Elvis Oyugi
- Division of National Malaria Programme, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Alice Kamau
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Frank Chacky
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Sumaiyya Thawer
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dodoma, Tanzania
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Fabrizio Molteni
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dodoma, Tanzania
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Damian Rutazanna
- National Malaria Control Division, Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda
| | - Catherine Maiteki-Sebuguzi
- National Malaria Control Division, Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda
- Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Kampala, Uganda
| | | | - Abdisalan M. Noor
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Robert W. Snow
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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8
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Odhiambo JN, Kalinda C, Macharia PM, Snow RW, Sartorius B. Spatial and spatio-temporal methods for mapping malaria risk: a systematic review. BMJ Glob Health 2021; 5:bmjgh-2020-002919. [PMID: 33023880 PMCID: PMC7537142 DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002919] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2020] [Revised: 08/23/2020] [Accepted: 08/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Approaches in malaria risk mapping continue to advance in scope with the advent of geostatistical techniques spanning both the spatial and temporal domains. A substantive review of the merits of the methods and covariates used to map malaria risk has not been undertaken. Therefore, this review aimed to systematically retrieve, summarise methods and examine covariates that have been used for mapping malaria risk in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Methods A systematic search of malaria risk mapping studies was conducted using PubMed, EBSCOhost, Web of Science and Scopus databases. The search was restricted to refereed studies published in English from January 1968 to April 2020. To ensure completeness, a manual search through the reference lists of selected studies was also undertaken. Two independent reviewers completed each of the review phases namely: identification of relevant studies based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, data extraction and methodological quality assessment using a validated scoring criterion. Results One hundred and seven studies met the inclusion criteria. The median quality score across studies was 12/16 (range: 7–16). Approximately half (44%) of the studies employed variable selection techniques prior to mapping with rainfall and temperature selected in over 50% of the studies. Malaria incidence (47%) and prevalence (35%) were the most commonly mapped outcomes, with Bayesian geostatistical models often (31%) the preferred approach to risk mapping. Additionally, 29% of the studies employed various spatial clustering methods to explore the geographical variation of malaria patterns, with Kulldorf scan statistic being the most common. Model validation was specified in 53 (50%) studies, with partitioning data into training and validation sets being the common approach. Conclusions Our review highlights the methodological diversity prominent in malaria risk mapping across SSA. To ensure reproducibility and quality science, best practices and transparent approaches should be adopted when selecting the statistical framework and covariates for malaria risk mapping. Findings underscore the need to periodically assess methods and covariates used in malaria risk mapping; to accommodate changes in data availability, data quality and innovation in statistical methodology.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Chester Kalinda
- Discipline of Public Health Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.,Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
| | - Peter M Macharia
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Robert W Snow
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.,Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Benn Sartorius
- Discipline of Public Health Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.,Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
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9
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Ghilardi L, Okello G, Nyondo-Mipando L, Chirambo CM, Malongo F, Hoyt J, Lee J, Sedekia Y, Parkhurst J, Lines J, Snow RW, Lynch CA, Webster J. How useful are malaria risk maps at the country level? Perceptions of decision-makers in Kenya, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Malar J 2020; 19:353. [PMID: 33008465 PMCID: PMC7530951 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-020-03425-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2020] [Accepted: 09/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Declining malaria prevalence and pressure on external funding have increased the need for efficiency in malaria control in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Modelled Plasmodium falciparum parasite rate (PfPR) maps are increasingly becoming available and provide information on the epidemiological situation of countries. However, how these maps are understood or used for national malaria planning is rarely explored. In this study, the practices and perceptions of national decision-makers on the utility of malaria risk maps, showing prevalence of parasitaemia or incidence of illness, was investigated. Methods A document review of recent National Malaria Strategic Plans was combined with 64 in-depth interviews with stakeholders in Kenya, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The document review focused on the type of epidemiological maps included and their use in prioritising and targeting interventions. Interviews (14 Kenya, 17 Malawi, 27 DRC, 6 global level) explored drivers of stakeholder perceptions of the utility, value and limitations of malaria risk maps. Results Three different types of maps were used to show malaria epidemiological strata: malaria prevalence using a PfPR modelled map (Kenya); malaria incidence using routine health system data (Malawi); and malaria prevalence using data from the most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DRC). In Kenya the map was used to target preventative interventions, including long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) and intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), whilst in Malawi and DRC the maps were used to target in-door residual spraying (IRS) and LLINs distributions in schools. Maps were also used for operational planning, supply quantification, financial justification and advocacy. Findings from the interviews suggested that decision-makers lacked trust in the modelled PfPR maps when based on only a few empirical data points (Malawi and DRC). Conclusions Maps were generally used to identify areas with high prevalence in order to implement specific interventions. Despite the availability of national level modelled PfPR maps in all three countries, they were only used in one country. Perceived utility of malaria risk maps was associated with the epidemiological structure of the country and use was driven by perceived need, understanding (quality and relevance), ownership and trust in the data used to develop the maps.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ludovica Ghilardi
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
| | - George Okello
- Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, P.O. Box 43640-00100, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Linda Nyondo-Mipando
- Department of Health Systems and Policy, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi
| | | | - Fathy Malongo
- Kinshasa School of Public Health, University of Kinshasa, Mont Amba/Lemba, BP 11850 Kin I, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
| | - Jenna Hoyt
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Jieun Lee
- World Vision UK, 1rb, 11 Belgrave Rd, Pimlico, London, SW1V 1RB, UK
| | - Yovitha Sedekia
- Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit (MITU)/ National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR)- Mwanza Research Centre, P.O BOX 11936, Isamilo road, Mwanza, Tanzania
| | - Justin Parkhurst
- London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK
| | - Jo Lines
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Robert W Snow
- Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, P.O. Box 43640-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.,Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, OX3 7LJ, Oxford, UK
| | - Caroline A Lynch
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Jayne Webster
- Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
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10
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Ryan SJ, Martin AC, Walia B, Winters A, Larsen DA. Comparing prioritization strategies for delivering indoor residual spray (IRS) implementation, using a network approach. Malar J 2020; 19:326. [PMID: 32887619 PMCID: PMC7650283 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-020-03398-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2020] [Accepted: 08/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Indoor residual spraying (IRS) is an effective method to control malaria-transmitting Anopheles mosquitoes and often complements insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the predominant malaria vector control intervention. With insufficient funds to cover every household, malaria control programs must balance the malaria risk to a particular human community against the financial cost of spraying that community. This study creates a framework for modelling the distance to households for targeting IRS implementation, and applies it to potential risk prioritization strategies in four provinces (Luapula, Muchinga, Eastern, and Northern) in Zambia. Methods Optimal network models were used to assess the travel distance of routes between operations bases and human communities identified through remote sensing. Network travel distances were compared to Euclidean distances, to demonstrate the importance of accounting for road routes. The distance to reaching communities for different risk prioritization strategies were then compared assuming sufficient funds to spray 50% of households, using four underlying malarial risk maps: (a) predicted Plasmodium falciparum parasite rate in 2–10 years olds (PfPR), or (b) predicted probability of the presence of each of three main malaria transmitting anopheline vectors (Anopheles arabiensis, Anopheles funestus, Anopheles gambiae). Results The estimated one-way network route distance to reach communities to deliver IRS ranged from 0.05 to 115.69 km. Euclidean distance over and under-estimated these routes by − 101.21 to 41.79 km per trip, as compared to the network route method. There was little overlap between risk map prioritization strategies, both at a district-by-district scale, and across all four provinces. At both scales, agreement for inclusion or exclusion from IRS across all four prioritization strategies occurred in less than 10% of houses. The distances to reaching prioritized communities were either lower, or not statistically different from non-prioritized communities, at both scales of strategy. Conclusion Variation in distance to targeted communities differed depending on risk prioritization strategy used, and higher risk prioritization did not necessarily translate into greater distances in reaching a human community. These findings from Zambia suggest that areas with higher malaria burden may not necessarily be more remote than areas with lower malaria burden.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sadie J Ryan
- Quantitative Disease Ecology and Conservation (QDEC) Lab, Department of Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA. .,Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA.
| | | | - Bhavneet Walia
- Department of Public Health, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA
| | - Anna Winters
- Akros, Lusaka, Zambia.,University of Montana School of Public and Community Health Science, Missoula, MT, USA
| | - David A Larsen
- Department of Public Health, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA
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Larsen DA, Martin A, Pollard D, Nielsen CF, Hamainza B, Burns M, Stevenson J, Winters A. Leveraging risk maps of malaria vector abundance to guide control efforts reduces malaria incidence in Eastern Province, Zambia. Sci Rep 2020; 10:10307. [PMID: 32587283 PMCID: PMC7316765 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-66968-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2019] [Accepted: 02/10/2020] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Although transmission of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases is geographically heterogeneous, in sub-Saharan Africa risk maps are rarely used to determine which communities receive vector control interventions. We compared outcomes in areas receiving different indoor residual spray (IRS) strategies in Eastern Province, Zambia: (1) concentrating IRS interventions within a geographical area, (2) prioritizing communities to receive IRS based on predicted probabilities of Anopheles funestus, and (3) prioritizing communities to receive IRS based on observed malaria incidence at nearby health centers. Here we show that the use of predicted probabilities of An. funestus to guide IRS implementation saw the largest decrease in malaria incidence at health centers, a 13% reduction (95% confidence interval = 5-21%) compared to concentrating IRS geographically and a 37% reduction (95% confidence interval = 30-44%) compared to targeting IRS based on health facility incidence. These results suggest that vector control programs could produce better outcomes by prioritizing IRS according to malaria-vector risk maps.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Carrie F Nielsen
- US President's Malaria Initiative, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | | | | | - Jennifer Stevenson
- Macha Research Trust, Choma, Zambia
- Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Anna Winters
- Akros Research, Lusaka, Zambia
- University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
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Thawer SG, Chacky F, Runge M, Reaves E, Mandike R, Lazaro S, Mkude S, Rumisha SF, Kumalija C, Lengeler C, Mohamed A, Pothin E, Snow RW, Molteni F. Sub-national stratification of malaria risk in mainland Tanzania: a simplified assembly of survey and routine data. Malar J 2020; 19:177. [PMID: 32384923 PMCID: PMC7206674 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-020-03250-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Accepted: 04/29/2020] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recent malaria control efforts in mainland Tanzania have led to progressive changes in the prevalence of malaria infection in children, from 18.1% (2008) to 7.3% (2017). As the landscape of malaria transmission changes, a sub-national stratification becomes crucial for optimized cost-effective implementation of interventions. This paper describes the processes, data and outputs of the approach used to produce a simplified, pragmatic malaria risk stratification of 184 councils in mainland Tanzania. METHODS Assemblies of annual parasite incidence and fever test positivity rate for the period 2016-2017 as well as confirmed malaria incidence and malaria positivity in pregnant women for the period 2015-2017 were obtained from routine district health information software. In addition, parasite prevalence in school children (PfPR5to16) were obtained from the two latest biennial council representative school malaria parasitaemia surveys, 2014-2015 and 2017. The PfPR5to16 served as a guide to set appropriate cut-offs for the other indicators. For each indicator, the maximum value from the past 3 years was used to allocate councils to one of four risk groups: very low (< 1%PfPR5to16), low (1- < 5%PfPR5to16), moderate (5- < 30%PfPR5to16) and high (≥ 30%PfPR5to16). Scores were assigned to each risk group per indicator per council and the total score was used to determine the overall risk strata of all councils. RESULTS Out of 184 councils, 28 were in the very low stratum (12% of the population), 34 in the low stratum (28% of population), 49 in the moderate stratum (23% of population) and 73 in the high stratum (37% of population). Geographically, most of the councils in the low and very low strata were situated in the central corridor running from the north-east to south-west parts of the country, whilst the areas in the moderate to high strata were situated in the north-west and south-east regions. CONCLUSION A stratification approach based on multiple routine and survey malaria information was developed. This pragmatic approach can be rapidly reproduced without the use of sophisticated statistical methods, hence, lies within the scope of national malaria programmes across Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sumaiyya G Thawer
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland.
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
| | - Frank Chacky
- Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children, Dodoma, Tanzania
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Manuela Runge
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Erik Reaves
- Malaria Branch, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and US President's Malaria Initiative, Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania
| | - Renata Mandike
- Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children, Dodoma, Tanzania
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Samwel Lazaro
- Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children, Dodoma, Tanzania
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Sigsbert Mkude
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Susan F Rumisha
- National Institute for Medical Research, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Claud Kumalija
- Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Christian Lengeler
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Ally Mohamed
- Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children, Dodoma, Tanzania
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania
| | - Emilie Pothin
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland
- University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- Clinton Health Access Initiative, New York, USA
| | - Robert W Snow
- KEMRI-Welcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Fabrizio Molteni
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland.
- National Malaria Control Programme, Dodoma, Tanzania.
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13
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Tomlinson S, South A, Longbottom J. Malaria Data by District: An open-source web application for increasing access to malaria information. Wellcome Open Res 2019. [DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15495.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Preventable diseases still cause huge mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Research in spatial epidemiology and earth observation is helping academics to understand and prioritise how mortality could be reduced and generates spatial data that are used at a global and national level, to inform disease control policy. These data could also inform operational decision making at a more local level, for example to help officials target efforts at a local/regional level. To be usable for local decision-making, data needs to be presented in a way that is relevant to and understandable by local decision makers. We demonstrate an approach and prototype web application to make spatial outputs from disease modelling more useful for local decision making. Key to our approach is: (1) we focus on a handful of important data layers to maintain simplicity; (2) data are summarised at scales relevant to decision making (administrative units); (3) the application has the ability to rank and compare administrative units; (4) open-source code that can be modified and re-used by others, to target specific user-needs. Our prototype application allows visualisation of a handful of key layers from the Malaria Atlas Project. Data can be summarised by administrative unit for any malaria endemic African country, ranked and compared; e.g. to answer questions such as, ‘does the district with the highest malaria prevalence also have the lowest coverage of insecticide treated nets?’. The application is developed in R and the code is open-source. It would be relatively easy for others to change the source code to incorporate different data layers, administrative boundaries or other data visualisations. We suggest such open-source web application development can facilitate the use of data for public health decision making in low resource settings.
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Tomlinson S, South A, Longbottom J. Malaria Data by District: An open-source web application for increasing access to malaria information. Wellcome Open Res 2019; 4:151. [PMID: 31886410 PMCID: PMC6915811 DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15495.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Preventable diseases still cause huge mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Research in spatial epidemiology and earth observation is helping academics to understand and prioritise how mortality could be reduced and generates spatial data that are used at a global and national level, to inform disease control policy. These data could also inform operational decision making at a more local level, for example to help officials target efforts at a local/regional level. To be usable for local decision-making, data needs to be presented in a way that is relevant to and understandable by local decision makers. We demonstrate an approach and prototype web application to make spatial outputs from disease modelling more useful for local decision making. Key to our approach is: (1) we focus on a handful of important data layers to maintain simplicity; (2) data are summarised at scales relevant to decision making (administrative units); (3) the application has the ability to rank and compare administrative units; (4) open-source code that can be modified and re-used by others, to target specific user-needs. Our prototype application allows visualisation of a handful of key layers from the Malaria Atlas Project. Data can be summarised by administrative unit for any malaria endemic African country, ranked and compared; e.g. to answer questions such as, 'does the district with the highest malaria prevalence also have the lowest coverage of insecticide treated nets?'. The application is developed in R and the code is open-source. It would be relatively easy for others to change the source code to incorporate different data layers, administrative boundaries or other data visualisations. We suggest such open-source web application development can facilitate the use of data for public health decision making in low resource settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean Tomlinson
- Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK
- Centre for Health Informatics, Computing and Statistics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK
| | - Andy South
- Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK
| | - Joshua Longbottom
- Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK
- Centre for Health Informatics, Computing and Statistics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK
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Chipeta MG, Giorgi E, Mategula D, Macharia PM, Ligomba C, Munyenyembe A, Chirombo J, Gumbo A, Terlouw DJ, Snow RW, Kayange M. Geostatistical analysis of Malawi's changing malaria transmission from 2010 to 2017. Wellcome Open Res 2019; 4:57. [PMID: 31372502 PMCID: PMC6662685 DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15193.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/20/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: The prevalence of malaria infection in time and space provides important information on the likely sub-national epidemiology of malaria burdens and how this has changed following intervention. Model-based geostatitics (MBG) allow national malaria control programmes to leverage multiple data sources to provide predictions of malaria prevalance by district over time. These methods are used to explore the possible changes in malaria prevalance in Malawi from 2010 to 2017. Methods: Plasmodium falciparum parasite prevalence ( PfPR) surveys undertaken in Malawi between 2000 and 2017 were assembled. A spatio-temporal geostatistical model was fitted to predict annual malaria risk for children aged 2-10 years ( PfPR 2-10) at 1×1 km spatial resolutions. Parameter estimation was carried out using the Monte Carlo maximum likelihood methods. Population-adjusted prevalence and populations at risk by district were calculated for 2010 and 2017 to inform malaria control program priority setting. Results: 2,237 surveys at 1,834 communities undertaken between 2000 and 2017 were identified, geo-coded and used within the MBG framework to predict district malaria prevalence properties for 2010 and 2017. Nationally, there was a 47.2% reduction in the mean modelled PfPR 2-10 from 29.4% (95% confidence interval (CI) 26.6 to 32.3%) in 2010 to 15.2% (95% CI 13.3 to 18.0%) in 2017. Declining prevalence was not equal across the country, 25 of 27 districts showed a substantial decline ranging from a 3.3% reduction to 79% reduction. By 2017, 16% of Malawi's population still lived in areas that support PfPR 2-10 ≥ 25%. Conclusions: Malawi has made substantial progress in reducing the prevalence of malaria over the last seven years. However, Malawi remains in meso-endemic malaria transmission risk. To sustain the gains made and continue reducing the transmission further, universal control interventions need to be maintained at a national level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Give Chipeta
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Emanuele Giorgi
- Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK
| | - Donnie Mategula
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Peter M. Macharia
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute - Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Chimwemwe Ligomba
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Alinane Munyenyembe
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - James Chirombo
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Austin Gumbo
- National Malaria Control Programme, Malawi Ministry of Health, Lilongwe, Malawi
| | - Dianne J. Terlouw
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK
| | - Robert W. Snow
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute - Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 2JD, UK
| | - Michael Kayange
- National Malaria Control Programme, Malawi Ministry of Health, Lilongwe, Malawi
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Umer MF, Zofeen S, Majeed A, Hu W, Qi X, Zhuang G. Effects of Socio-Environmental Factors on Malaria Infection in Pakistan: A Bayesian Spatial Analysis. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2019; 16:E1365. [PMID: 30995744 PMCID: PMC6517989 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16081365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2019] [Revised: 04/07/2019] [Accepted: 04/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
The role of socio-environmental factors in shaping malaria dynamics is complex and inconsistent. Effects of socio-environmental factors on malaria in Pakistan at district level were examined. Annual malaria cases data were obtained from Directorate of Malaria Control Program, Pakistan. Meteorological data were supplied by Pakistan Meteorological Department. A major limitation was the use of yearly, rather than monthly/weekly malaria data in this study. Population data, socio-economic data and education score data were downloaded from internet. Bayesian conditional autoregressive model was used to find the statistical association of socio-environmental factors with malaria in Pakistan. From 136/146 districts in Pakistan, >750,000 confirmed malaria cases were included, over a three years' period (2013-2015). Socioeconomic status ((posterior mean value -3.965, (2.5% quintile, -6.297%), (97.5% quintile, -1.754%)) and human population density (-7.41 × 10-4, -0.001406%, -1.05 × 10-4 %) were inversely related, while minimum temperature (0.1398, 0.05275%, 0.2145%) was directly proportional to malaria in Pakistan during the study period. Spatial random effect maps presented that moderate relative risk (RR, 0.75 to 1.24) and high RR (1.25 to 1.99) clusters were scattered throughout the country, outnumbering the ones' with low RR (0.23 to 0.74). Socio-environmental variables influence annual malaria incidence in Pakistan and needs further evaluation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Farooq Umer
- School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an 710061, China.
| | - Shumaila Zofeen
- School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an 710061, China.
| | - Abdul Majeed
- Directorate of Malaria Control Program, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
| | - Wenbiao Hu
- School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD 4059, Australia.
| | - Xin Qi
- School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an 710061, China.
- Global Health Institute, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an 710061, China.
| | - Guihua Zhuang
- School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an 710061, China.
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Malaria Risk Stratification and Modeling the Effect of Rainfall on Malaria Incidence in Eritrea. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2019; 2019:7314129. [PMID: 31061663 PMCID: PMC6466923 DOI: 10.1155/2019/7314129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2018] [Accepted: 02/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Background Malaria risk stratification is essential to differentiate areas with distinct malaria intensity and seasonality patterns. The development of a simple prediction model to forecast malaria incidence by rainfall offers an opportunity for early detection of malaria epidemics. Objectives To construct a national malaria stratification map, develop prediction models and forecast monthly malaria incidences based on rainfall data. Methods Using monthly malaria incidence data from 2012 to 2016, the district level malaria stratification was constructed by nonhierarchical clustering. Cluster validity was examined by the maximum absolute coordinate change and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a conservative post hoc test (Bonferroni) as the multiple comparison test. Autocorrelation and cross-correlation analyses were performed to detect the autocorrelation of malaria incidence and the lagged effect of rainfall on malaria incidence. The effect of rainfall on malaria incidence was assessed using seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) models. Ljung-Box statistics for model diagnosis and stationary R-squared and Normalized Bayesian Information Criteria for model fit were used. Model validity was assessed by analyzing the observed and predicted incidences using the spearman correlation coefficient and paired samples t-test. Results A four cluster map (high risk, moderate risk, low risk, and very low risk) was the most valid stratification system for the reported malaria incidence in Eritrea. Monthly incidences were influenced by incidence rates in the previous months. Monthly incidence of malaria in the constructed clusters was associated with 1, 2, 3, and 4 lagged months of rainfall. The constructed models had acceptable accuracy as 73.1%, 46.3%, 53.4%, and 50.7% of the variance in malaria transmission were explained by rainfall in the high-risk, moderate-risk, low-risk, and very low-risk clusters, respectively. Conclusion Change in rainfall patterns affect malaria incidence in Eritrea. Using routine malaria case reports and rainfall data, malaria incidences can be forecasted with acceptable accuracy. Further research should consider a village or health facility level modeling of malaria incidence by including other climatic factors like temperature and relative humidity.
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Chipeta MG, Giorgi E, Mategula D, Macharia PM, Ligomba C, Munyenyembe A, Chirombo J, Gumbo A, Terlouw DJ, Snow RW, Kayange M. Geostatistical analysis of Malawi's changing malaria transmission from 2010 to 2017. Wellcome Open Res 2019; 4:57. [PMID: 31372502 PMCID: PMC6662685 DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15193.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/18/2019] [Indexed: 10/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Background: The prevalence of malaria infection in time and space provides important information on the likely sub-national epidemiology of malaria burdens and how this has changed following intervention. Model-based geostatitics (MBG) allow national malaria control programmes to leverage multiple data sources to provide predictions of malaria prevalance by district over time. These methods are used to explore the possible changes in malaria prevalance in Malawi from 2010 to 2017. Methods: Plasmodium falciparum parasite prevalence ( PfPR) surveys undertaken in Malawi between 2000 and 2017 were assembled. A spatio-temporal geostatistical model was fitted to predict annual malaria risk for children aged 2-10 years ( PfPR 2-10) at 1×1 km spatial resolutions. Parameter estimation was carried out using the Monte Carlo maximum likelihood methods. Population-adjusted prevalence and populations at risk by district were calculated for 2010 and 2017 to inform malaria control program priority setting. Results: 2,237 surveys at 1,834 communities undertaken between 2000 and 2017 were identified, geo-coded and used within the MBG framework to predict district malaria prevalence properties for 2010 and 2017. Nationally, there was a 47.2% reduction in the mean modelled PfPR 2-10 from 29.4% (95% confidence interval (CI) 26.6 to 32.3%) in 2010 to 15.2% (95% CI 13.3 to 18.0%) in 2017. Declining prevalence was not equal across the country, 25 of 27 districts showed a significant decline ranging from a 3.3% reduction to 79% reduction. By 2017, 16% of Malawi's population still lived in areas that support PfPR 2-10 ≥ 25%. Conclusions: Malawi has made substantial progress in reducing the prevalence of malaria over the last seven years. However, Malawi remains in meso-endemic malaria transmission risk. To sustain the gains made and continue reducing the transmission further, universal control interventions need to be maintained at a national level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Give Chipeta
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Emanuele Giorgi
- Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK
| | - Donnie Mategula
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Peter M. Macharia
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute - Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Chimwemwe Ligomba
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Alinane Munyenyembe
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - James Chirombo
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
| | - Austin Gumbo
- National Malaria Control Programme, Malawi Ministry of Health, Lilongwe, Malawi
| | - Dianne J. Terlouw
- Malaria Epidemiology Group, Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi
- Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK
| | - Robert W. Snow
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute - Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 2JD, UK
| | - Michael Kayange
- National Malaria Control Programme, Malawi Ministry of Health, Lilongwe, Malawi
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Tewara MA, Mbah-Fongkimeh PN, Dayimu A, Kang F, Xue F. Small-area spatial statistical analysis of malaria clusters and hotspots in Cameroon;2000-2015. BMC Infect Dis 2018; 18:636. [PMID: 30526507 PMCID: PMC6286522 DOI: 10.1186/s12879-018-3534-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Accepted: 11/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Malaria prevalence in Cameroon is a major public health problem both at the regional and urban-rural geographic scale. In 2016, an estimated 1.6 million confirmed cases, and 18,738 cases were reported in health facilities and communities respectively, with about 8000 estimated deaths. Several studies have estimated malaria prevalence in Cameroon using the analytical techniques at the regional scale. We aimed at identifying malaria clusters and hotspots at the urban-rural geographic scale from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for households between 2000 and 2015 using ArcGIS for intervention programs. Methods To identify malaria hotspots and analyze the pattern of distribution, we used the optimized hotspots toolset and spatial autocorrelation respectively in ArcGIS 10.3 for desktop. We also used Pearson’s Correlation analysis to identify associative environmental factors using the R-software 3.4.1. Results The spatial distribution of malaria showed statistically significant clustered pattern for the year 2000 and 2015 with Moran’s indexes 0.126 (P < 0.001) and 0.187 (P < 0.001) respectively. Meanwhile, the years 2005 and 2010 with Moran’s indexes 0.001 (P = 0.488) and 0.002 (P = 0.318) respectively, had a random malaria distribution pattern. There exist varying degrees of malaria clusters and statistically significant hotspots in the urban-rural areas of the 12 administrative regions. Malaria cases were associated with population density and some environmental covariates; rainfall, enhanced vegetation index and composite lights (P < 0.001). Conclusion This study identified urban-rural areas with high and low malaria clusters and hotspots. Our maps can be used as supportive tools for effective malaria control and elimination, and investments in malaria programs and research, malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment, surveillance, should pay more attention to urban-rural geographic scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlvin Anemey Tewara
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Shandong University Cheeloo College of Medicine , Jinan, 250012, People's Republic of China
| | | | - Alimu Dayimu
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Shandong University Cheeloo College of Medicine , Jinan, 250012, People's Republic of China
| | - Fengling Kang
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Shandong University Cheeloo College of Medicine , Jinan, 250012, People's Republic of China
| | - Fuzhong Xue
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Shandong University Cheeloo College of Medicine , Jinan, 250012, People's Republic of China.
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Abstract
Spatial epidemiology is a rapidly advancing field, pushing our abilities to measure, monitor and map pathogens at increasingly finer spatiotemporal scales. However, these scales often do not align with the abilities of control programmes to act at them, building a disconnect between academia and implementation. Efforts are being made to feed innovations into government, build spatial data skills, and strengthen links between disease control programmes and universities, yet work remains to be done if goals for disease control, elimination and 'leaving no one behind' are to be met.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew J Tatem
- WorldPop, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
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Macharia PM, Giorgi E, Noor AM, Waqo E, Kiptui R, Okiro EA, Snow RW. Spatio-temporal analysis of Plasmodium falciparum prevalence to understand the past and chart the future of malaria control in Kenya. Malar J 2018; 17:340. [PMID: 30257697 PMCID: PMC6158896 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-018-2489-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2018] [Accepted: 09/21/2018] [Indexed: 09/29/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Spatial and temporal malaria risk maps are essential tools to monitor the impact of control, evaluate priority areas to reorient intervention approaches and investments in malaria endemic countries. Here, the analysis of 36 years data on Plasmodium falciparum prevalence is used to understand the past and chart a future for malaria control in Kenya by confidently highlighting areas within important policy relevant thresholds to allow either the revision of malaria strategies to those that support pre-elimination or those that require additional control efforts. METHODS Plasmodium falciparum parasite prevalence (PfPR) surveys undertaken in Kenya between 1980 and 2015 were assembled. A spatio-temporal geostatistical model was fitted to predict annual malaria risk for children aged 2-10 years (PfPR2-10) at 1 × 1 km spatial resolution from 1990 to 2015. Changing PfPR2-10 was compared against plausible explanatory variables. The fitted model was used to categorize areas with varying degrees of prediction probability for two important policy thresholds PfPR2-10 < 1% (non-exceedance probability) or ≥ 30% (exceedance probability). RESULTS 5020 surveys at 3701 communities were assembled. Nationally, there was an 88% reduction in the mean modelled PfPR2-10 from 21.2% (ICR: 13.8-32.1%) in 1990 to 2.6% (ICR: 1.8-3.9%) in 2015. The most significant decline began in 2003. Declining prevalence was not equal across the country and did not directly coincide with scaled vector control coverage or changing therapeutics. Over the period 2013-2015, of Kenya's 47 counties, 23 had an average PfPR2-10 of < 1%; four counties remained ≥ 30%. Using a metric of 80% probability, 8.5% of Kenya's 2015 population live in areas with PfPR2-10 ≥ 30%; while 61% live in areas where PfPR2-10 is < 1%. CONCLUSIONS Kenya has made substantial progress in reducing the prevalence of malaria over the last 26 years. Areas today confidently and consistently with < 1% prevalence require a revised approach to control and a possible consideration of strategies that support pre-elimination. Conversely, there remains several intractable areas where current levels and approaches to control might be inadequate. The modelling approaches presented here allow the Ministry of Health opportunities to consider data-driven model certainty in defining their future spatial targeting of resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter M Macharia
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.
| | - Emanuele Giorgi
- Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
| | - Abdisalan M Noor
- Global Malaria Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Ejersa Waqo
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Rebecca Kiptui
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Emelda A Okiro
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Robert W Snow
- Population Health Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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22
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Briand D, Roux E, Desconnets JC, Gervet C, Barcellos C. From global action against malaria to local issues: state of the art and perspectives of web platforms dealing with malaria information. Malar J 2018; 17:122. [PMID: 29562918 PMCID: PMC5863370 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-018-2270-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2017] [Accepted: 03/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Since prehistory to present times and despite a rough combat against it, malaria remains a concern for human beings. While evolutions of science and technology through times allowed for some infectious diseases eradication in the 20th century, malaria resists. Objectives This review aims at assessing how Internet and web technologies are used in fighting malaria. Precisely, how do malaria fighting actors profit from these developments, how do they deal with ensuing phenomena, such as the increase of data volume, and did these technologies bring new opportunities for fighting malaria? Methods Eleven web platforms linked to spatio-temporal malaria information are reviewed, focusing on data, metadata, web services and categories of users. Results Though the web platforms are highly heterogeneous the review reveals that the latest advances in web technologies are underused. Information are rarely updated dynamically, metadata catalogues are absent, web services are more and more used, but rarely standardized, and websites are mainly dedicated to scientific communities, essentially researchers. Conclusion Improvement of systems interoperability, through standardization, is an opportunity to be seized in order to allow real time information exchange and online multisource data analysis. To facilitate multidisciplinary/multiscale studies, the web of linked data and the semantic web innovations can be used in order to formalize the different view points of actors involved in the combat against malaria. By doing so, new malaria fighting strategies could take place, to tackle the bottlenecks listed in the United Nation Millennium Development Goals reports, but also specific issues highlighted by the World Health Organization such as malaria elimination in international borders. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12936-018-2270-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dominique Briand
- FIOCRUZ, LIS Laboratory, Avenida Brasil, 4365, Pavilhão Haity Moussatché, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. .,IRD, UMR ESPACE-DEV, Maison de la télédétection, 500 rue Jean François Breton, 34090, Montpelllier, France.
| | - Emmanuel Roux
- IRD, UMR ESPACE-DEV, Maison de la télédétection, 500 rue Jean François Breton, 34090, Montpelllier, France
| | - Jean Christophe Desconnets
- IRD, UMR ESPACE-DEV, Maison de la télédétection, 500 rue Jean François Breton, 34090, Montpelllier, France
| | - Carmen Gervet
- Université de Montpellier, UMR ESPACE-DEV, Maison de la télédétection, 500 rue Jean François Breton, 34090, Montpellier, France
| | - Christovam Barcellos
- FIOCRUZ, LIS Laboratory, Avenida Brasil, 4365, Pavilhão Haity Moussatché, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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23
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Moukam Kakmeni FM, Guimapi RYA, Ndjomatchoua FT, Pedro SA, Mutunga J, Tonnang HEZ. Spatial panorama of malaria prevalence in Africa under climate change and interventions scenarios. Int J Health Geogr 2018; 17:2. [PMID: 29338736 PMCID: PMC5771136 DOI: 10.1186/s12942-018-0122-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2017] [Accepted: 01/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
Malaria is highly sensitive to climatic variables and is strongly influenced by the presence of vectors in a region that further contribute to parasite development and sustained disease transmission. Mathematical analysis of malaria transmission through the use and application of the value of the basic reproduction number (R0) threshold is an important and useful tool for the understanding of disease patterns. Methods Temperature dependence aspect of R0 obtained from dynamical mathematical network model was used to derive the spatial distribution maps for malaria transmission under different climatic and intervention scenarios. Model validation was conducted using MARA map and the Annual Plasmodium falciparum Entomological Inoculation Rates for Africa. Results The inclusion of the coupling between patches in dynamical model seems to have no effects on the estimate of the optimal temperature (about 25 °C) for malaria transmission. In patches environment, we were able to establish a threshold value (about α = 5) representing the ratio between the migration rates from one patch to another that has no effect on the magnitude of R0. Such findings allow us to limit the production of the spatial distribution map of R0 to a single patch model. Future projections using temperature changes indicated a shift in malaria transmission areas towards the southern and northern areas of Africa and the application of the interventions scenario yielded a considerable reduction in transmission within malaria endemic areas of the continent. Conclusions The approach employed here is a sole study that defined the limits of contemporary malaria transmission, using R0 derived from a dynamical mathematical model. It has offered a unique prospect for measuring the impacts of interventions through simple manipulation of model parameters. Projections at scale provide options to visualize and query the results, when linked to the human population could potentially deliver adequate highlight on the number of individuals at risk of malaria infection across Africa. The findings provide a reasonable basis for understanding the fundamental effects of malaria control and could contribute towards disease elimination, which is considered as a challenge especially in the context of climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francois M Moukam Kakmeni
- Human Health Division, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box 30772-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.,Complex Systems and Theoretical Biology Group, Laboratory of Research on Advanced Materials and Nonlinear Science (LaRAMaNS), Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63, Buea, Cameroon
| | - Ritter Y A Guimapi
- Human Health Division, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box 30772-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.,Department of Computing, School of Computing and Information Technology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), P.O. Box 62000-00200, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Frank T Ndjomatchoua
- Human Health Division, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box 30772-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.,Laboratoire de Mécanique, Département de Physique, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Yaoundé I, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroun
| | - Sansoa A Pedro
- Human Health Division, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box 30772-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.,Departamento de Matemática e Informática, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Campus Principal, Maputo, Mozambique
| | - James Mutunga
- Human Health Division, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box 30772-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.,School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, Mount Kenya University, P.O. Box 342-01000, General Kago Rd, Thika, Kenya
| | - Henri E Z Tonnang
- Human Health Division, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box 30772-00100, Nairobi, Kenya. .,International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) ICRAF House, United Nation, Avenue, Gigiri, Village Market, P.O. Box 1041, Nairobi, 00621, Kenya. .,College of Biological and Physical Sciences, Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation (ICCA), University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 29053, Nairobi, Kenya.
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24
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Cohen JM, Le Menach A, Pothin E, Eisele TP, Gething PW, Eckhoff PA, Moonen B, Schapira A, Smith DL. Mapping multiple components of malaria risk for improved targeting of elimination interventions. Malar J 2017; 16:459. [PMID: 29132357 PMCID: PMC5683539 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-017-2106-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2017] [Accepted: 11/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
There is a long history of considering the constituent components of malaria risk and the malaria transmission cycle via the use of mathematical models, yet strategic planning in endemic countries tends not to take full advantage of available disease intelligence to tailor interventions. National malaria programmes typically make operational decisions about where to implement vector control and surveillance activities based upon simple categorizations of annual parasite incidence. With technological advances, an enormous opportunity exists to better target specific malaria interventions to the places where they will have greatest impact by mapping and evaluating metrics related to a variety of risk components, each of which describes a different facet of the transmission cycle. Here, these components and their implications for operational decision-making are reviewed. For each component, related mappable malaria metrics are also described which may be measured and evaluated by malaria programmes seeking to better understand the determinants of malaria risk. Implementing tailored programmes based on knowledge of the heterogeneous distribution of the drivers of malaria transmission rather than only consideration of traditional metrics such as case incidence has the potential to result in substantial improvements in decision-making. As programmes improve their ability to prioritize their available tools to the places where evidence suggests they will be most effective, elimination aspirations may become increasingly feasible.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin M Cohen
- Clinton Health Access Initiative, 383 Dorchester Ave., Suite 400, Boston, MA, 02127, USA.
| | - Arnaud Le Menach
- Clinton Health Access Initiative, 383 Dorchester Ave., Suite 400, Boston, MA, 02127, USA
| | - Emilie Pothin
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4051, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Thomas P Eisele
- Center for Applied Malaria Research and Evaluation, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal St (2300), New Orleans, LA, 70112, USA
| | - Peter W Gething
- Oxford Big Data Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Information and Discovery, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK
| | - Philip A Eckhoff
- Institute for Disease Modeling, Building IV, 3150 139th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA, 98005, USA
| | - Bruno Moonen
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PO Box 23350, Seattle, WA, 98102, USA
| | | | - David L Smith
- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, 2301 Fifth Ave., Suite 600, Seattle, WA, 98121, USA
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25
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Githinji S, Noor AM, Malinga J, Macharia PM, Kiptui R, Omar A, Njagi K, Waqo E, Snow RW. A national health facility survey of malaria infection among febrile patients in Kenya, 2014. Malar J 2016; 15:591. [PMID: 27931229 PMCID: PMC5146872 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-016-1638-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2016] [Accepted: 11/24/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The use of malaria infection prevalence among febrile patients at clinics has a potential to be a valuable epidemiological surveillance tool. However, routine data are incomplete and not all fevers are tested. This study was designed to screen all fevers for malaria infection in Kenya to explore the epidemiology of fever test positivity rates. METHODS Random sampling was used within five malaria epidemiological zones of Kenya (i.e., high lake endemic, moderate coast endemic, highland epidemic, seasonal low transmission and low risk zones). The selected sample was representative of the number of hospitals, health centres and dispensaries within each zone. Fifty patients with fever presenting to each sampled health facility during the short rainy season were screened for malaria infection using a rapid diagnostic test (RDT). Details of age, pregnancy status and basic demographics were recorded for each patient screened. RESULTS 10,557 febrile patients presenting to out-patient clinics at 234 health facilities were screened for malaria infection. 1633 (15.5%) of the patients surveyed were RDT positive for malaria at 124 (53.0%) facilities. Infection prevalence among non-pregnant patients varied between malaria risk zones, ranging from 0.6% in the low risk zone to 41.6% in the high lake endemic zone. Test positivity rates (TPR) by age group reflected the differences in the intensity of transmission between epidemiological zones. In the lake endemic zone, 6% of all infections were among children aged less than 1 year, compared to 3% in the coast endemic, 1% in the highland epidemic zone, less than 1% in the seasonal low transmission zone and 0% in the low risk zone. Test positivity rate was 31% among febrile pregnant women in the high lake endemic zone compared to 9% in the coast endemic and highland epidemic zones, 3.2% in the seasonal low transmission zone and zero in the low risk zone. CONCLUSION Malaria infection rates among febrile patients, with supporting data on age and pregnancy status presenting to clinics in Kenya can provide invaluable epidemiological data on spatial heterogeneity of malaria and serve as replacements to more expensive community-based infection rates to plan and monitor malaria control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Githinji
- KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Abdisalan M. Noor
- KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | | | - Rebecca Kiptui
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Ahmeddin Omar
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Kiambo Njagi
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Ejersa Waqo
- National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Robert W. Snow
- KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme, Nairobi, Kenya
- Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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26
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Chukwuocha UM, Fernández-Rivera O, Legorreta-Herrera M. Exploring the antimalarial potential of whole Cymbopogon citratus plant therapy. JOURNAL OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY 2016; 193:517-523. [PMID: 27693771 DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2016.09.056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2016] [Revised: 09/24/2016] [Accepted: 09/28/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Cymbopogon citratus (lemon grass) has been used in traditional medicine as an herbal infusion to treat fever and malaria. Generally, whole plant extracts possess higher biological activity than purified compounds. However, the antimalarial activity of the whole C. citratus plant has not been experimentally tested. AIM OF THE STUDY To evaluate the antimalarial activity of an herbal infusion and the whole Cymbopogon citratus plant in two experimental models of malaria. MATERIAL AND METHODS The plant was dried for 10 days at room temperature and was then milled and passed through brass sieves to obtain a powder, which was administered to CBA/Ca mice with a patent Plasmodium chabaudi AS or P. berghei ANKA infection. We analysed the effects of two different doses (1600 and 3200mg/kg) compared with those of the herbal infusion and chloroquine, used as a positive control. We also assessed the prophylactic antimalarial activities of the whole C. citratus plant and the combination of the whole plant and chloroquine. RESULTS The C. citratus whole plant exhibited prolonged antimalarial activity against both P. chabaudi AS and P. berghei ANKA. The low dose of the whole C. citratus plant displayed higher antimalarial activity than the high dose against P. berghei ANKA. As a prophylactic treatment, the whole plant exhibited higher antimalarial activity than either the herbal infusion or chloroquine. In addition, the combination of the whole C. citratus plant and chloroquine displayed higher activity than chloroquine alone against P. berghei ANKA patent infection. CONCLUSIONS We demonstrated the antimalarial activity of the whole C. citratus plant in two experimental models. The whole C. citratus plant elicited higher anti-malarial activity than the herbal infusion or chloroquine when used as a prophylactic treatment. The antimalarial activity of the whole C. citratus plant supports continued efforts towards developing whole plant therapies for the management of malaria and other infectious diseases prevalent in resource-poor communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Uchechukwu M Chukwuocha
- Laboratorio de Inmunología Molecular, FES Zaragoza, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Batalla 5 de Mayo esq. Fuerte de Loreto, Iztapalapa 09230, Ciudad de México, Mexico; Department of Public Health Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri PMB 1526, Imo State, Nigeria
| | - Omar Fernández-Rivera
- Laboratorio de Inmunología Molecular, FES Zaragoza, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Batalla 5 de Mayo esq. Fuerte de Loreto, Iztapalapa 09230, Ciudad de México, Mexico
| | - Martha Legorreta-Herrera
- Laboratorio de Inmunología Molecular, FES Zaragoza, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Batalla 5 de Mayo esq. Fuerte de Loreto, Iztapalapa 09230, Ciudad de México, Mexico.
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27
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Buckee CO, Tatem AJ, Metcalf CJE. Seasonal Population Movements and the Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases. Trends Parasitol 2016; 33:10-20. [PMID: 27865741 DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2016.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2016] [Revised: 10/08/2016] [Accepted: 10/19/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
National policies designed to control infectious diseases should allocate resources for interventions based on regional estimates of disease burden from surveillance systems. For many infectious diseases, however, there is pronounced seasonal variation in incidence. Policy-makers must routinely manage a public health response to these seasonal fluctuations with limited understanding of their underlying causes. Two complementary and poorly described drivers of seasonal disease incidence are the mobility and aggregation of human populations, which spark outbreaks and sustain transmission, respectively, and may both exhibit distinct seasonal variations. Here we highlight the key challenges that seasonal migration creates when monitoring and controlling infectious diseases. We discuss the potential of new data sources in accounting for seasonal population movements in dynamic risk mapping strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline O Buckee
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA; Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
| | - Andrew J Tatem
- Flowminder Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden; WorldPop, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - C Jessica E Metcalf
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, USA; Office of Population Research, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Princeton, USA
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28
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Kazembe LN, Mathanga DP. Estimating risk factors of urban malaria in Blantyre, Malawi: A spatial regression analysis. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.apjtb.2016.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
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29
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Sedda L, Qi Q, Tatem AJ. A geostatistical analysis of the association between armed conflicts and Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Africa, 1997-2010. Malar J 2015; 14:500. [PMID: 26670739 PMCID: PMC4681145 DOI: 10.1186/s12936-015-1024-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2015] [Accepted: 11/27/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The absence of conflict in a country has been cited as a crucial factor affecting the operational feasibility of achieving malaria control and elimination, yet mixed evidence exists on the influence that conflicts have had on malaria transmission. Over the past two decades, Africa has seen substantial numbers of armed conflicts of varying length and scale, creating conditions that can disrupt control efforts and impact malaria transmission. However, very few studies have quantitatively assessed the associations between conflicts and malaria transmission, particularly in a consistent way across multiple countries. METHODS In this analysis an explicit geostatistical, autoregressive, mixed model is employed to quantitatively assess the association between conflicts and variations in Plasmodium falciparum parasite prevalence across a 13-year period in sub-Saharan Africa. RESULTS Analyses of geolocated, malaria prevalence survey variations against armed conflict data in general showed a wide, but short-lived impact of conflict events geographically. The number of countries with decreased P. falciparum parasite prevalence (17) is larger than the number of countries with increased transmission (12), and notably, some of the countries with the highest transmission pre-conflict were still found with lower transmission post-conflict. For four countries, there were no significant changes in parasite prevalence. Finally, distance from conflicts, duration of conflicts, violence of conflict, and number of conflicts were significant components in the model explaining the changes in P. falciparum parasite rate. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that the maintenance of intervention coverage and provision of healthcare in conflict situations to protect vulnerable populations can maintain gains in even the most difficult of circumstances, and that conflict does not represent a substantial barrier to elimination goals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luigi Sedda
- CHICAS, Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, Furness Building, Lancaster, LA1 4YG, UK.
| | - Qiuyin Qi
- Department of Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611-7315, USA.
| | - Andrew J Tatem
- Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA. .,Flowminder Foundation, Roslagsgatan 17, 113 55, Stockholm, Sweden. .,Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
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30
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Tong QB, Chen R, Zhang Y, Yang GJ, Kumagai T, Furushima-Shimogawara R, Lou D, Yang K, Wen LY, Lu SH, Ohta N, Zhou XN. A new surveillance and response tool: risk map of infected Oncomelania hupensis detected by Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) from pooled samples. Acta Trop 2015; 141:170-7. [PMID: 24495631 DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2014.01.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2013] [Revised: 01/16/2014] [Accepted: 01/21/2014] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Although schistosomiasis remains a serious health problem worldwide, significant achievements in schistosomiasis control has been made in the People's Republic of China. The disease has been eliminated in five out of 12 endemic provinces, and the prevalence in remaining endemic areas is very low and is heading toward elimination. A rapid and sensitive method for monitoring the distribution of infected Oncomelania hupensis is urgently required. We applied a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay targeting 28S rDNA for the rapid and effective detection of Schistosoma japonicum DNA in infected and prepatent infected O. hupensis snails. The detection limit of the LAMP method was 100 fg of S. japonicum genomic DNA. To promote the application of the approach in the field, the LAMP assay was used to detect infection in pooled samples of field-collected snails. In the pooled sample detection, snails were collected from 28 endemic areas, and 50 snails from each area were pooled based on the maximum pool size estimation, crushed together and DNA was extracted from each pooled sample as template for the LAMP assay. Based on the formula for detection from pooled samples, the proportion of positive pooled samples and the positive proportion of O. hupensis detected by LAMP of Xima village reached 66.67% and 1.33%, while those of Heini, Hongjia, Yangjiang and Huangshan villages were 33.33% and 0.67%, and those of Tuanzhou and Suliao villages were 16.67% and 0.33%, respectively. The remaining 21 monitoring field sites gave negative results. A risk map for the transmission of schistosomiasis was constructed using ArcMap, based on the positive proportion of O. hupensis infected with S. japonicum, as detected by the LAMP assay, which will form a guide for surveillance and response strategies in high risk areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qun-Bo Tong
- Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R. China
| | - Rui Chen
- Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R. China
| | - Yi Zhang
- National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, P.R. China; Key Laboratory for Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH, P.R. China
| | - Guo-Jing Yang
- Jiangsu Institute of Schistosomiasis, Wuxi, P.R. China
| | - Takashi Kumagai
- Section of Environmental Parasitology, Department of International Health Development, Division of Public Health, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Rieko Furushima-Shimogawara
- Section of Environmental Parasitology, Department of International Health Development, Division of Public Health, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Di Lou
- Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R. China
| | - Kun Yang
- Jiangsu Institute of Schistosomiasis, Wuxi, P.R. China
| | - Li-Yong Wen
- Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R. China
| | - Shao-Hong Lu
- Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, Hangzhou, P.R. China.
| | - Nobuo Ohta
- Section of Environmental Parasitology, Department of International Health Development, Division of Public Health, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Xiao-Nong Zhou
- National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, P.R. China; Key Laboratory for Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH, P.R. China.
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Samadoulougou S, Maheu-Giroux M, Kirakoya-Samadoulougou F, De Keukeleire M, Castro MC, Robert A. Multilevel and geo-statistical modeling of malaria risk in children of Burkina Faso. Parasit Vectors 2014; 7:350. [PMID: 25074132 PMCID: PMC4262087 DOI: 10.1186/1756-3305-7-350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2014] [Accepted: 07/19/2014] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Previous research on determinants of malaria in Burkina Faso has largely focused on individual risk factors. Malaria risk, however, is also shaped by community, health system, and climatic/environmental characteristics. The aims of this study were: i) to identify such individual, household, community, and climatic/environmental risk factors for malaria in children under five years of age, and ii) to produce a parasitaemia risk map of Burkina Faso. Methods The 2010 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) was the first in Burkina Faso that tested children for malaria parasitaemia. Multilevel and geo-statistical models were used to explore determinants of malaria using this nationally representative database. Results Parasitaemia was collected from 6,102 children, of which 66.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 64.0-68.0%) were positive for Plasmodium spp. Older children (>23 months) were more likely to be parasitaemic than younger ones, while children from wealthier households and whose mother had higher education were at a lower risk. At the community level, living in a district with a rate of attendance to health facilities lower than 2 visits per year was significantly associated with greater odds of being infected. Malaria prevalence was also associated with higher normalized difference vegetation index, lower average monthly rainfall, and lower population densities. Predicted malaria parasitaemia was spatially variable with locations falling within an 11%-92% prevalence range. The number of parasitaemic children was nonetheless concentrated in areas of high population density, albeit malaria risk was notably higher in the sparsely populated rural areas. Conclusion Malaria prevalence in Burkina Faso is considerably higher than in neighbouring countries. Our spatially-explicit population-based estimates of malaria risk and infected number of children could be used by local decision-makers to identify priority areas where control efforts should be enhanced. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1756-3305-7-350) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sekou Samadoulougou
- Pôle Epidémiologie et Biostatistique (EPID), Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), Faculté de Santé Publique (FSP), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Clos Chapelle-aux-champs 30, bte B1,30,13, 1200 Bruxelles, Belgium.
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Reithinger R. Global malaria efforts: Progress made, but challenges loom ahead. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 2014; 108:247-8. [DOI: 10.1093/trstmh/tru031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Vanderelst D, Speybroeck N. An adjusted bed net coverage indicator with estimations for 23 African countries. Malar J 2013; 12:457. [PMID: 24359227 PMCID: PMC4021220 DOI: 10.1186/1475-2875-12-457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2013] [Accepted: 07/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Many studies have assessed the level of bed net coverage in populations at risk of malaria infection. These revealed large variations in bed net use across countries, regions and social strata. Such studies are often aimed at identifying populations with low access to bed nets that should be prioritized in future interventions. However, often spatial differences in malaria endemicity are not taken into account. By ignoring variability in malaria endemicity, these studies prioritize populations with little access to bed nets, even if these happen to live in low endemicity areas. Conversely, populations living in regions with high malaria endemicity will receive a lower priority once a seizable proportion is protected by bed nets. Adequately assigning priorities requires accounting for both the current level of bed net coverage and the local malaria endemicity. Indeed, as shown here for 23 African countries, there is no correlation between the level of bed net coverage and the level of malaria endemicity in a region. Therefore, the need for future interventions can not be assessed based on current bed net coverage alone. This paper proposes the Adjusted Bed net Coverage (ABC) statistic as a measure taking into account both local malaria endemicity and the level of bed net coverage. The measure allows setting priorities for future interventions taking into account both local malaria endemicity and bed net coverage. Methods A mathematical formulation of the ABC as a weighted difference of bed net coverage and malaria endemicity is presented. The formulation is parameterized based on a model of malaria epidemiology (Smith et al. Trends Parasitol 25:511-516, 2009). By parameterizing the ABC based on this model, the ABC as used in this paper is proxy for the steady-state malaria burden given the current level of bed net coverage. Data on the bed net coverage in under five year olds and malaria endemicity in 23 Sub-Saharan countries is used to show that the ABC prioritizes different populations than the level of bed net coverage by itself. Data from the following countries was used: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo Democratic Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The priority order given by the ABC and the bed net coverage are compared at the countries’ level, the first level administrative divisions and for five different wealth quintiles. Results Both at national level and at the level of the administrative divisions the ABC suggests a different priority order for selecting countries and divisions for future interventions. When taking into account malaria endemicity, measures assessing equality in access to bed nets across wealth quintiles, such as slopes of inequality, are prone to change. This suggests that when assessing inequality in access to bed nets one should take into account the local malaria endemicity for populations from different wealth quintiles. Conclusion Accounting for malaria endemicity highlights different countries, regions and socio-economic strata for future intervention than the bed net coverage by itself. Therefore, care should be taken to factor out any effects of local malaria endemicity in assessing bed net coverage and in prioritizing populations for further scale-up of bed net coverage. The ABC is proposed as a simple means to do this that is derived from an existing model of malaria epidemiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dieter Vanderelst
- University Antwerp Faculty of Applied Economics Prinsstraat 13, Antwerp 2000, Belgium.
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Bennett A, Kazembe L, Mathanga DP, Kinyoki D, Ali D, Snow RW, Noor AM. Mapping malaria transmission intensity in Malawi, 2000-2010. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2013; 89:840-849. [PMID: 24062477 PMCID: PMC3820324 DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.13-0028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2013] [Accepted: 07/02/2013] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Substantial development assistance has been directed towards reducing the high malaria burden in Malawi over the past decade. We assessed changes in transmission over this period of malaria control scale-up by compiling community Plasmodium falciparum rate (PfPR) data during 2000-2011 and used model-based geostatistical methods to predict mean PfPR2-10 in 2000, 2005, and 2010. In addition, we calculated population-adjusted prevalences and populations at risk by district to inform malaria control program priority setting. The national population-adjusted PfPR2-10 was 37% in 2010, and we found no evidence of change over this period of scale-up. The entire population of Malawi is under meso-endemic transmission risk, with those in districts along the shore of Lake Malawi and Shire River Valley under highest risk. The lack of change in prevalence confirms modeling predictions that when compared with lower transmission, prevalence reductions in high transmission settings require greater investment and longer time scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Bennett
- Center for Applied Malaria Research and Evaluation, Department of Global Health Systems and Development, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana; Department of Statistics, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia; Malaria Alert Centre, Malawi College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi; Malaria Public Health Department, Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust–University of Oxford Collaborative Programme, Nairobi, Kenya; National Malaria Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Lilongwe, Malawi; Centre for Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Alegana VA, Atkinson PM, Wright JA, Kamwi R, Uusiku P, Katokele S, Snow RW, Noor AM. Estimation of malaria incidence in northern Namibia in 2009 using Bayesian conditional-autoregressive spatial-temporal models. Spat Spatiotemporal Epidemiol 2013; 7:25-36. [PMID: 24238079 PMCID: PMC3839406 DOI: 10.1016/j.sste.2013.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2013] [Revised: 08/05/2013] [Accepted: 09/05/2013] [Indexed: 10/29/2022]
Abstract
As malaria transmission declines, it becomes increasingly important to monitor changes in malaria incidence rather than prevalence. Here, a spatio-temporal model was used to identify constituencies with high malaria incidence to guide malaria control. Malaria cases were assembled across all age groups along with several environmental covariates. A Bayesian conditional-autoregressive model was used to model the spatial and temporal variation of incidence after adjusting for test positivity rates and health facility utilisation. Of the 144,744 malaria cases recorded in Namibia in 2009, 134,851 were suspected and 9893 were parasitologically confirmed. The mean annual incidence based on the Bayesian model predictions was 13 cases per 1000 population with the highest incidence predicted for constituencies bordering Angola and Zambia. The smoothed maps of incidence highlight trends in disease incidence. For Namibia, the 2009 maps provide a baseline for monitoring the targets of pre-elimination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor A Alegana
- Malaria Public Health Department, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust-University of Oxford Collaborative Programme, P.O. Box 43640, 00100 GPO Nairobi, Kenya; Centre for Geographical Health Research, Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
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Moyes CL, Temperley WH, Henry AJ, Burgert CR, Hay SI. Providing open access data online to advance malaria research and control. Malar J 2013; 12:161. [PMID: 23680401 PMCID: PMC3662599 DOI: 10.1186/1475-2875-12-161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2013] [Accepted: 05/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Background To advance research on malaria, the outputs from existing studies and the data that fed into them need to be made freely available. This will ensure new studies can build on the work that has gone before. These data and results also need to be made available to groups who are developing public health policies based on up-to-date evidence. The Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) has collated and geopositioned over 50,000 parasite prevalence and vector occurrence survey records contributed by over 3,000 sources including research groups, government agencies and non-governmental organizations worldwide. This paper describes the results of a project set up to release data gathered, used and generated by MAP. Methods Requests for permission to release data online were sent to 236 groups who had contributed unpublished prevalence (parasite rate) surveys. An online explorer tool was developed so that users can visualize the spatial distribution of the vector and parasite survey data before downloading it. In addition, a consultation group was convened to provide advice on the mode and format of release for data generated by MAP’s modelling work. New software was developed to produce a suite of publication-quality map images for download from the internet for use in external publications. Conclusion More than 40,000 survey records can now be visualized on a set of dynamic maps and downloaded from the MAP website on a free and unrestricted basis. As new data are added and new permissions to release existing data come in, the volume of data available for download will increase. The modelled data output from MAP’s own analyses are also available online in a range of formats, including image files and GIS surface data, for use in advocacy, education, further research and to help parameterize or validate other mathematical models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine L Moyes
- Department of Zoology, Spatial Ecology and Epidemiology Group, Tinbergen Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX 1 3PS, UK.
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Noor AM, ElMardi KA, Abdelgader TM, Patil AP, Amine AAA, Bakhiet S, Mukhtar MM, Snow RW. Malaria risk mapping for control in the republic of Sudan. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2012; 87:1012-1021. [PMID: 23033400 PMCID: PMC3516068 DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.2012.12-0390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2012] [Accepted: 08/09/2012] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Evidence shows that malaria risk maps are rarely tailored to address national control program ambitions. Here, we generate a malaria risk map adapted for malaria control in Sudan. Community Plasmodium falciparum parasite rate (PfPR) data from 2000 to 2010 were assembled and were standardized to 2-10 years of age (PfPR(2-10)). Space-time Bayesian geostatistical methods were used to generate a map of malaria risk for 2010. Surfaces of aridity, urbanization, irrigation schemes, and refugee camps were combined with the PfPR(2-10) map to tailor the epidemiological stratification for appropriate intervention design. In 2010, a majority of the geographical area of the Sudan had risk of < 1% PfPR(2-10). Areas of meso- and hyperendemic risk were located in the south. About 80% of Sudan's population in 2011 was in the areas in the desert, urban centers, or where risk was < 1% PfPR(2-10). Aggregated data suggest reducing risks in some high transmission areas since the 1960s.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abdisalan M. Noor
- Malaria Public Health Theme, Centre for Geographic Medicine Research, Coast, Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya; Centre for Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; National Malaria Control Programme, Federal Ministry of Health, Republic of Sudan; Sense Inc., Detroit, Michigan; Institute of Endemic Diseases, Department of Parasitology, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
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