Starting at the community: treatment-seeking pathways of children with suspected severe malaria in Uganda (Publications)
than five years with suspected severe malaria. An observational study in Uganda enrolled children below five years presenting to CHWs with signs of severe malaria. Children were followed up 28 days after [...] Community health workers (CHW) usually refer children with suspected severe malaria to the nearest public health facility or a designated public referral health facility (RHF). Caregivers do not always
Spatio-temporal modelling of routine health facility data for malaria risk micro-stratification in mainland Tanzania (Publications)
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 [...] 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 [...] million people lived in areas where malaria TPR was very low ( < 5%; 90%...
Malaria, climate variability, and interventions: modelling transmission dynamics (Publications)
of the relative impact of climate change on malaria dynamics is a complex problem. Climate is a well-known factor that plays a crucial role in driving malaria outbreaks in epidemic transmission areas. However [...] influence in endemic environments with intensive malaria control interventions is not fully understood, mainly due to the scarcity of high-quality, long-term malaria data. The demographic surveillance systems [...] effects of weather variability on the burden of malaria. Here, using a...
Modelling the impact of interventions on imported, introduced and indigenous malaria infections in Zanzibar, Tanzania (Publications)
Malaria cases can be classified as imported, introduced or indigenous cases. The World Health Organization's definition of malaria elimination requires an area to demonstrate that no new indigenous cases [...] cases have occurred in the last three years. Here, we present a stochastic metapopulation model of malaria transmission that distinguishes between imported, introduced and indigenous cases, and can be used [...] interventions in a setting with low transmission and ongoing case importation....
Acceptability, feasibility, drug safety, and effectiveness of a pilot mass drug administration with a single round of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine plus... (Publications)
For a malaria elimination strategy, Haiti's National Malaria Control Program piloted a mass drug administration (MDA) with indoor residual spraying (IRS) in 12 high-transmission areas across five communes [...] round of MDA/IRS on malaria transmission was not found using a standard pre- and post-intervention comparison, it is possible there was blunting of the peak transmission. Seasonal malaria transmission patterns
The first case series of malaria overlapped with COVID-19 in Iran (Publications)
detection of malaria was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Case finding was dramatically decreased with the onset of coronavirus, thereby causing a spurt in malaria incidence. Moreover, the malaria treatment [...] Introduction: Although indigenous malaria cases have dramatically declined over the past decades, the COVID pandemic has continued to affect the programs designed to combat malaria, particularly in those countries [...] normal in some cases, but they were mistakenly treated as...
Development and evaluation of PlasmoPod: a cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test for rapid malaria diagnosis and surveillance (Publications)
Malaria surveillance is hampered by the widespread use of diagnostic tests with low sensitivity. Adequate molecular malaria diagnostics are often only available in centralized laboratories. PlasmoPod is [...] cross-reactivity with other pathogens common in malaria endemic regions was observed. In a cohort of 102 asymptomatic individuals from Bioko Island with low malaria parasite densities, PlasmoPod accurately detected [...] independent cohort, using dried blood spots from malaria symptomatic...