A high-resolution geospatial surveillance-response system for malaria elimination in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

Kelly, Gerard C.; Hale, Erick; Donald, Wesley; Batarii, Willie; Bugoro, Hugo; Nausien, Johnny; Smale, John; Palmer, Kevin; Bobogare, Albino; Taleo, George; Vallely, Andrew; Tanner, Marcel; Vestergaard, Lasse S; Clements, Archie C. A.

doi:10.1186/1475-2875-12-108

Cited by 54 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…When a symptomatic malaria patient is diagnosed at a health facility, health care workers screen household members, neighbours and other related community members for malaria. This form of case detection is an intuitive approach in that if cases of malaria cluster in space and time, then it may be efficient to target those clusters in order to disrupt transmission [5, 6]. Such an approach is not considered feasible or efficient in high-transmission settings, but may be appropriate for interrupting transmission in a patchy environment [7, 8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limitations of malaria reactive case detection in an area of low and unstable transmission on the Myanmar–Thailand border

Parker

Landier

Seidlein

et al. 2016

Malar J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundReactive case detection is an approach that has been proposed as a tool for malaria elimination in low-transmission settings. It is an intuitively justified approach based on the concept of space–time clustering of malaria cases. When an index malaria clinical case is detected, it triggers reactive screening and treatment in the index house and neighbouring houses. However, the efficacy of this approach at varying screening radii and malaria prevalence remains ill defined.MethodsData were obtained from a detailed demographic and geographic surveillance study in four villages on the Myanmar–Thailand border. Clinical cases were recorded at village malaria clinics and were linked back to patients’ residencies. These data were used to simulate the efficacy of reactive case detection for clinical cases using rapid diagnostic tests (RDT). Simulations took clinical cases in a given month and tabulated the number of cases that would have been detected in the following month at varying screening radii around the index houses. Simulations were run independently for both falciparum and vivax malaria. Each simulation of a reactive case detection effort was run in comparison with a strategy using random selection of houses for screening.ResultsIn approximately half of the screenings for falciparum and 10% for vivax it would have been impossible to detect any malaria cases regardless of the screening strategy because the screening would have occurred during times when there were no cases. When geographically linked cases were present in the simulation, reactive case detection would have only been successful at detecting most malaria cases using larger screening radii (150-m radius and above). At this screening radius and above, reactive case detection does not perform better than random screening of an equal number of houses in the village. Screening within very small radii detects only a very small proportion of cases, but despite this low performance is better than random screening with the same sample size.ConclusionsThe results of these simulations indicate that reactive case detection for clinical cases using RDTs has limited ability in halting transmission in regions of low and unstable transmission. This is linked to high spatial heterogeneity of cases, acquisition of malaria infections outside the village, as well missing asymptomatic infections. When cases are few and sporadic, reactive case detection would result in major time and budgetary losses.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-016-1631-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limitations of malaria reactive case detection in an area of low and unstable transmission on the Myanmar–Thailand border

Parker

Landier

Seidlein

et al. 2016

Malar J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The stability of these hotspots 15 and the relationship between transmission intensity and malaria hotspots are areas of ongoing study 16 . Using different malaria transmission variables at the micro-epidemiological level, maps and models have been produced to guide National Control Programmes in Africa and Southeast Asia 12,[17][18][19][20][21][22] . By contrast in the Americas, where the dynamics of malaria transmission is different from Africa and Southeast Asia due to differences in vector bionomics, social conditions or parasite genetic structure among others, relatively few studies have attempted to identify transmission heterogeneity, whether using epidemiological data 23 , serological tools 24,25 or assessing the effect of ecological differences on malaria transmission 26 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-temporal dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum transmission within a spatial unit on the Colombian Pacific Coast

Knudson

González-Casabianca

Feged-Rivadeneira

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As malaria control programmes concentrate their efforts towards malaria elimination a better understanding of malaria transmission patterns at fine spatial resolution units becomes necessary. Defining spatial units that consider transmission heterogeneity, human movement and migration will help to set up achievable malaria elimination milestones and guide the creation of efficient operational administrative control units. Using a combination of genetic and epidemiological data we defined a malaria transmission unit as the area contributing 95% of malaria cases diagnosed at the catchment facility located in the town of Guapi in the South Pacific Coast of Colombia. We provide data showing that P. falciparum malaria transmission is heterogeneous in time and space and analysed, using topological data analysis, the spatial connectivity, at the micro epidemiological level, between parasite populations circulating within the unit. To illustrate the necessity to evaluate the efficacy of malaria control measures within the transmission unit in order to increase the efficiency of the malaria control effort, we provide information on the size of the asymptomatic reservoir, the nature of parasite genotypes associated with drug resistance as well as the frequency of the Pfhrp2/3 deletion associated with false negatives when using Rapid Diagnostic tests.Sustained global malaria control and elimination initiatives, driven by local and international funding agencies, regional malaria control programmes, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), have led to a dramatic decrease in malaria mortality and case incidence in the last 15 years. Worldwide, there has been a reduction in case incidence of 18% and reduction in mortality of 48%, with significant impact in Africa 1 . Although the 2019 WHO Malaria Report suggests that progress may be slowing, malaria elimination is still an active target for many Colombia, represents relatively high gametocytemia 39,40 . More than 96% of malaria cases diagnosed at the Guapi malaria health facility originated within a 25 km radius of the town of Guapi. We therefore define the Guapi malaria transmission unit as the area where the catchment facility captures 95% of cases ( Fig. S1 4). Scientific RepoRtS |(2020) 10:3756 | https://doi.

show abstract

“…Some of the problems highlighted above can be addressed by supporting electronic data capture from health centres [53]. The formerly used SDSS was successful in enabling the digital capture of data from remote parts of Solomon Islands [8][9][10]. However, the SDSS could not be sustained because it was not integrated into the national surveillance system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the District Health Information System 2 supported malaria reporting system in Solomon Islands

Wangdi

Sarma

Leaburi³

et al. 2020

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundDistrict Health Information Systems 2 (DHIS2) is used for supporting health information management in 67 countries, including Solomon Islands. However, there have been few published evaluations of the performance of DHIS2-enhanced disease reporting systems, in particular for monitoring infectious diseases such as malaria. The aim of this study was to evaluate DHIS2 supported malaria reporting in Solomon Islands and to develop recommendations for improving the system.MethodsThe evaluation was conducted in three administrative areas of Solomon Islands: Honoria City Council, and Malaita and Guadalcanal Provinces. Records of nine malaria indicators from 1st January to 31st December 2016 were extracted from the DHIS2 database. The indicators permitted assessment in four core areas: availability, completeness, timeliness and reliability. To obtain more detailed information on the performance of the malaria case reporting system, focus group discussions were conducted with health centre nurses, whilst in-depth interviews were conducted with stakeholder representatives from government (province and national) staff and WHO officials who were users of DHIS2. ResultsData were extracted from nine health centres in Honoria City Council and 64 health centres in Malaita Province. The completeness and timeliness from the two provinces of all nine indicators were 28.2% and 5.1% respectively. The most reliable indicator in DHIS2 was ‘clinical malaria’ (i.e. numbers of clinically diagnosed malaria cases) with 62.4% reliability. Challenges to completeness were a lack of supervision, limited feedback, high workload, and a lack of training and refresher courses. Health centres located in geographically remote areas, a lack of regular transport, high workload and too many variables in the reporting forms led to delays in timely reporting. Reliability of reports was impacted by a lack of technical professionals such as statisticians and unavailability of tally sheets and reporting forms. ConclusionThe availability, completeness, timeliness and reliability of nine malaria indicators collected in DHIS2 were variable within the study area, but generally low. Continued onsite support, supervision, feedback and additional enhancements such as electronic reporting will be required to further improve the malaria reporting system.

show abstract

A high-resolution geospatial surveillance-response system for malaria elimination in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

Cited by 54 publications

References 22 publications

Limitations of malaria reactive case detection in an area of low and unstable transmission on the Myanmar–Thailand border

Limitations of malaria reactive case detection in an area of low and unstable transmission on the Myanmar–Thailand border

Spatio-temporal dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum transmission within a spatial unit on the Colombian Pacific Coast

Evaluation of the District Health Information System 2 supported malaria reporting system in Solomon Islands

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About