Contributing to Elimination of Cross-Border Malaria Through a Standardized Solution for Case Surveillance, Data Sharing, and Data Interpretation: Development of a Cross-Border Monitoring System

Abstract

Background Cross-border malaria is a significant obstacle to achieving malaria control and elimination worldwide. Objective This study aimed to build a cross-border surveillance system that can make comparable and qualified data available to all parties involved in malaria control between French Guiana and Brazil. Methods Data reconciliation rules based on expert knowledge were defined and applied to the heterogeneous data provided by the existing malaria surveillance systems of both countries. Visualization dashboards were designed to facilitate progressive data exploration, analysis, and interpretation. Dedicated advanced open source and robust software solutions were chosen to facilitate solution sharing and reuse. Results A database gathering the harmonized data on cross-border malaria epidemiology is updated monthly with new individual malaria cases from both countries. Online dashboards permit a progressive and user-friendly visualization of raw data and epidemiological indicators, in the form of time series, maps, and data quality indexes. The monitoring system was shown to be able to identify changes in time series that are related to control actions, as well as differentiated changes according to space and to population subgroups. Conclusions This cross-border monitoring tool could help produce new scientific evidence on cross-border malaria dynamics, implementing cross-border cooperation for malaria control and elimination, and can be quickly adapted to other cross-border contexts.

Cross-border malaria in Northern Brazil

“…The third pillar of the WHO Global Technical Strategy for malaria 2016–2030 focuses on strengthening surveillance efforts to become a core intervention, as data collection and detection of cases is of paramount importance when planning the stratification of control efforts and resource distribution. Data-driven approaches to malaria stratification, particularly those that include cross-country collaboration with intense surveillance, are effective in combatting cross-border malaria [ 33 – 35 ], although cross-country collaboration may be impracticable in some cases due to incongruent surveillance efforts or poor international relations across country borders [ 4 ]. Genetic and molecular techniques have the potential to monitor drug-resistant malaria parasites entering from neighboring countries [ 36 ].…”

“…Second, border malaria, defined as an internationally imported case across or along borders between countries sharing a land border (the border region can extend up through the adjacent administrative areas along the international border, or up to a specified distance from an international border) [ 2 ]. As cross-border malaria cannot be solved unilaterally, many cross-country collaborations have been established to enhance surveillance and control at borders [ 3 , 4 ]. Yet, those collaborations may be difficult or impracticable when countries differ widely in their progress and commitment toward malaria elimination when one of the countries faces civil or political unrest, and when national protocols for diagnosis, treatment, and control are distinct [ 1 ].…”

Malaria Knowledge and Infection Among Migrant Population in the China-vietnam Border: A Questionnaire-based Survey

“…Movement of infectious diseases such as malaria and COVID-19 across borders poses a major obstacle to achieving and maintaining elimination [1,9,10]. The ndings in our study have revealed that 6 asymptomatic infections detected, accounting for 5.6% of all migrant population from Vietnam.…”

Resurgence risk for malaria, and the characterization of a recent outbreak in an Amazonian border area between French Guiana and Brazil

“…International cooperation, research and technological development works have been conducted for several years and led to the establishment of an operational system for the harmonization and visualization of data from the two aforementioned databases [23]. This system relies on expert knowledge, meets international standards for information representation, and uses dedicated and robust harmonization techniques and tools (notably the Extract, Transform and Load, "ETL", approach).…”