Policy brief for Afghanistan study

Description

Community Case Management of Malaria in Afghanistan

Category: Intervention Manuals

Sub Category: Intervention Manuals

Author: Toby Leslie

Published Date: 01 March 2014

Description

Improving coverage and accuracy of malaria treatment in South and West Asia will depend on universal access to parasite-based malaria diagnostics.

Outside most of Africa, these tests need to differentiate non-malarial causes of fever from Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum. The aim is to use malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) to eliminate reliance on symptoms for diagnosis, and improve access to appropriate treatment for common causes of febrile illness including the use of ACT for falciparum malaria and appropriate treatment for pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases.

Community health workers (CHWs) are important providers of healthcare – in Afghanistan there are around 16,000 CHWs in malaria endemic areas. In line with current recommendations for universal access to malaria testing, we conducted a cluster randomised trial of RDTs among CHWs.

Study design and results available for download.