Publications

Lack of decline in childhood malaria, Malawi, 2001-2010

Authors:

Arantxa Roca-Feltrer, Collins J. Kwizombe, Miguel A. Sanjoaquin, Sanie S.S. Sesay, Brian Faragher, Jim Harrison, Karen Geukers, Storn Kabuluzi, Don P. Mathanga, Elizabeth Molyneux, Maganizo Chagomera, Terrie Taylor, Malcolm Molyneux, Robert S. Heyderman

Abstract:

In some areas of Africa, health facility data have indicated declines in malaria that might have resulted from increasingly effective control programs. Most such reports have been from countries where malaria transmission is highly seasonal or of modest intensity. In Malawi, perennial malaria transmission is intense, and malaria control measures have been scaled up during the past decade. We examined health facility data for children seen as outpatients and parasitemia-positive children hospitalized with cerebral malaria in a large national hospital. The proportion of Plasmodium falciparum–positive slides among febrile children at the hospital declined early in the decade, but no further reductions were observed after 2005. The number of admissions for cerebral malaria did not differ significantly by year. Continued surveillance for malaria is needed to evaluate the effects of the increased malaria control efforts.

Journal:

Emerg Infect Dis.

Year:

2012

PMID:

22305090

PMCID:

PMC3310453

Hyperlink:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3310453/