Abstract
BackgroundMadagascar, as other malaria endemic countries, depends mainly on international funding for the implementation of malaria control interventions (MCI). As these funds no longer increase, policy makers need to know whether these MCI actually provide the expected protection. This study aimed at measuring the effectiveness of MCI deployed in all transmission patterns of Madagascar in 2012–2013 against the occurrence of clinical malaria cases.MethodsFrom September 2012 to August 2013, patients consulting for non-complicated malaria in 31 sentinel health centres (SHC) were asked to answer a short questionnaire about long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) use, indoor residual spraying (IRS) in the household and intermittent preventive treatment of pregnant women (IPTp) intake. Controls were healthy all-ages individuals sampled from a concurrent cross-sectional survey conducted in areas surrounding the SHC. Cases and controls were retained in the database if they were resident of the same communes. The association between Plasmodium infection and exposure to MCI was calculated by multivariate multilevel models, and the protective effectiveness (PE) of an intervention was defined as 1 minus the odds ratio of this association.ResultsData about 841 cases (out of 6760 cases observed in SHC) and 8284 controls was collected. The regular use of LLIN provided a significant 51 % PE (95 % CI [16–71]) in multivariate analysis, excluding in one transmission pattern where PE was −11 % (95 % CI [−251 to 65]) in univariate analysis. The PE of IRS was 51 % (95 % CI [31–65]), and the PE of exposure to both regular use of LLIN and IRS was 72 % (95 % CI [28–89]) in multivariate analyses. Vector control interventions avoided yearly over 100,000 clinical cases of malaria in Madagascar. The maternal PE of IPTp was 73 %.ConclusionsIn Madagascar, LLIN and IRS had good PE against clinical malaria. These results may apply to other countries with similar transmission profiles, but such case–control surveys could be recommended to identify local failures in the effectiveness of MCI.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-016-1132-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Madagascar, as other malaria endemic countries, depends mainly on international funding for the implementation of malaria control interventions (MCI)
That international funding for malaria control stopped increasing, it becomes of public health and strategic importance to measure the actual effectiveness of MCIs, in order to fund what is really working
From September 2012 to August 2013, 6760 clinical malaria cases were observed in 30 sentinel health centres (SHC)
Summary
Madagascar, as other malaria endemic countries, depends mainly on international funding for the implementation of malaria control interventions (MCI) As these funds no longer increase, policy makers need to know whether these MCI provide the expected protection. That international funding for malaria control stopped increasing, it becomes of public health and strategic importance to measure the actual effectiveness of MCIs, in order to fund what is really working. In this context, the present study was aimed to evaluate whether interventions deployed performed well by measuring their individual effectiveness, their coverage and, by multiplication of these two values, their community effectiveness [8, 9]. The level of evidence generated by observational studies don’t reach the one generated by randomized controlled trials (RCTs) it would be unethical to conduct RCTs—and intentionally leave individuals unprotected—for policy guidance
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
