Developing High‐Resolution Population and Settlement Data for Impactful Malaria Interventions in Zambia

Abstract

Foundational high-resolution geospatial data products for population, settlements, infrastructure, and boundaries may greatly enhance the efficient planning of resource allocation during health sector interventions. To ensure the relevance and sustainability of such products, government partners must be involved from the beginning in their creation, improvement, and/or management, so they can be successfully applied to public health campaigns, such as malaria control and prevention. As an example, Zambia had an ambitious strategy of reaching the entire population with malaria vector control campaigns by late 2020 or early 2021, but they lacked the requisite accurate and up-to-date data on infrastructure and population distribution. To address this gap, the Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3) program, Akros, and other partners developed maps and planning templates to aid Zambia’s National Malaria Elimination Program (NMEP) in operationalizing its strategy.

Assessing national vector control micro-planning in Zambia using the 2021 malaria indicator survey

“…The 2020 micro-planning for vector control was carried out at the health facility catchment level, which is the geolocated operational unit for vector control planning and implementation in Zambia. In the 2020 micro-planning exercise, selection of which settlements would receive IRS was based on existing knowledge of structure density, accessibility, suitability of construction material of structures for IRS (including plastered vs. unplastered walls, walls made of reeds/grass, wooden/plank walls), and other operational aspects including feasibility [ 13 ]. To ensure each area received at least one of the interventions, IRS/LLIN micro-planning workshops were held in each district.…”

“…Prior to 2020, the strategy for vector control was to achieve universal coverage with LLINs, with IRS deployed in addition to LLINs in selected high-burden areas that were accessible for spraying [ 10 ]. In 2020, the NMEP adopted a ‘mosaic’ approach to vector control deployment at the sub-district, health facility catchment level, where some settlements were assigned to receive LLINs during the 2020–2021 mass campaign while others received IRS under a micro-planning strategy [ 10 , 13 , 14 ]. The rationale for this approach was to maximize available IRS and LLIN supplies, and the aim was to ensure households received only one vector control intervention and that co-deployment of the interventions was minimized [ 13 ].…”

“…In 2020, the NMEP adopted a ‘mosaic’ approach to vector control deployment at the sub-district, health facility catchment level, where some settlements were assigned to receive LLINs during the 2020–2021 mass campaign while others received IRS under a micro-planning strategy [ 10 , 13 , 14 ]. The rationale for this approach was to maximize available IRS and LLIN supplies, and the aim was to ensure households received only one vector control intervention and that co-deployment of the interventions was minimized [ 13 ]. Hereafter, the process of assigning areas to receive LLIN or IRS will be referred to as micro-planning, and the designations themselves will be referred to as micro-plans.…”

Supplementing routine hospital surveillance of malaria to capture excess mortality and epidemiological trends: a five-year observational study

“…Pharmacy records were unavailable for 4 months in 2018 and 2 months in 2019, and blood inventory data were missing for 7 months in 2017-2018 and 4 months in 2021 due to missing or destroyed records. Hospital catchment area population estimates were obtained from Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (Borkovska et al, 2022).…”