Key factors predicting suspected severe malaria case management and health outcomes: an operational study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Publications)
Artesunate (RAS) can be a life-saving intervention for severe malaria in remote settings in Africa. Recognition of danger signs indicative of severe malaria is critical for prompt and appropriate case management [...] of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to determine the distribution of dangers signs for severe malaria and assess their impact on RAS use, referral completion, injectable treatment and ACT provision, [...] that mortality was higher in children not receiving RAS (aOR = 1.50, 95%...
Participatory approaches for raising awareness among subsistence farmers in Tanzania about the spread of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors and... (Publications)
pesticide awareness, practices, and opinions of; insecticide resistance in malaria vectors; the effectiveness of current malaria prevention tools; and the links between agricultural and public health pesticide [...] three quarters had never heard of resistance in malaria mosquitoes. Experts from various sectors acknowledged that agricultural pesticides might impact malaria control through increasing resistance. They did [...] BACKGROUND: Insecticide resistance is a key barrier to long-term malar...
Stratification of malaria incidence in Papua New Guinea (2011–2019): contribution towards a sub-national control policy (Publications)
Malaria risk in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is highly heterogeneous, between and within geographical regions, which is operationally challenging for control. To enhance targeting of malaria interventions in [...] Incidence maps show a contrast in malaria risk between coastal and inland areas influenced by altitude. However, the risk is highly variable in low-lying areas. Malaria interventions should be guided by [...] in PNG, we investigated risk factors and stratified malaria incidence at the level...
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
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....
Infectivity of symptomatic malaria patients to <em>Anopheles farauti</em> colony mosquitoes in Papua New Guinea (Publications)
to mosquitoes is an understudied bottleneck in the transmission of malaria. Direct membrane feeding assays (DMFA) allow detailed malaria transmission studies from humans to mosquitoes. Especially for Plasmodium [...] were performed with venous blood collected from rapid diagnostic test (RDT) positive symptomatic malaria patients and subsequently analysed by light microscopy and quantitative real time polymerase chain
Emulator-based Bayesian optimization for efficient multi-objective calibration of an individual-based model of malaria (Publications)
framework employing Gaussian process or machine learning emulator functions to calibrate a complex malaria transmission simulator. We demonstrate our approach by optimizing over a high-dimensional parameter [...] a portfolio of multiple fitting objectives built from datasets capturing the natural history of malaria transmission and disease progression. Our approach quickly outperforms previous calibrations, yielding
Revisiting the effect of pharmaceuticals on transmission stage formation in the malaria parasite <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> (Publications)
Malaria parasites rely on specialized stages, called gametocytes, to ensure human-to-human transmission. The formation of these sexual precursor cells is initiated by commitment of blood stage parasites [...] vivo. These observations suggest that therapeutic interventions may promote gametocytogenesis and malaria transmission. Here, we engineered a P. falciparum reporter line to quantify sexual commitment rates [...] rates after exposure to antimalarials and other pharmaceuticals commonly...