Prevention of re-establishment of malaria: historical perspective and future prospects

S M Ibraheem Nasir,Preethi Udagama,Sachini Amarasekara,Renu Wickremasinghe,Deepika Fernando

doi:10.1186/s12936-020-03527-8

S M Ibraheem Nasir, Preethi Udagama + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-020-03527-8

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Abstract

Prevention of re-establishment (POR) refers to the prevention of malaria outbreak/epidemic occurrence or preventing re-establishment of indigenous malaria in a malaria-free country. Understanding the effectiveness of the various strategies used for POR is, therefore, of vital importance to countries certified as “malaria-free” or to the countries to be thus certified in the near future. This review is based on extensive review of literature on both the POR strategies and elimination schemes of countries, (i) that have reached malaria-free status (e.g. Armenia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka), (ii) those that are reaching pre-elimination stage (e.g. South Korea), and (iii) countries at the control phase (e.g. India). History has clearly shown that poorly implemented POR programmes can result in deadly consequences (e.g. Sri Lanka); conversely, there are examples of robust POR programmes that have sustained malaria free status that can serve as examples to countries working toward elimination. Countries awaiting malaria elimination status should pre-plan their POR strategies. Malaria-free countries face the risk of resurgence mostly due to imported malaria cases; thus, a robust passenger screening programme and cross border collaborations are crucial in a POR setting. In addition, sustained vigilance, and continued funding for the national anti-malarial campaign programme and for related research is of vital importance for POR. With distinct intrinsic potential for malaria in each country, tailor-made POR programmes are built through continuous and robust epidemiological and entomological surveillance, particularly in countries such as Sri Lanka with increased receptivity and vulnerability for malaria transmission. In summary, across all five countries under scrutiny, common strengths of the POR programmes are (i) a multipronged approach, (ii) strong passive, active, and activated passive case detection, (iii) Indoor residual spraying (IRS), and (iv) health education/awareness programmes.

Highlights

Malaria is a life-threatening disease that has ravaged human lives for thousands of years; 228 million cases of malaria accompanied by 405,000 deaths were reported globally in 2018 [1]
An extensive internet search was performed, for scientific publications indexed in the PubMed/Medline database using the following keywords; P. vivax, P. falciparum, malaria elimination, prevention of re-establishment, importation risk, surveillance
This study demonstrated that using mobile technologies and GIS in the capture and reporting of National Health Information System (NHIS) data in Papua New Guinea provides timely, high quality, geo-coded, case-based malaria data required for malaria elimination

Summary

Introduction

Malaria is a life-threatening disease that has ravaged human lives for thousands of years; 228 million cases of malaria accompanied by 405,000 deaths were reported globally in 2018 [1]. Nasir et al Malar J (2020) 19:452 of percentage of people at risk was only visible in the South-east Asia region (70% decrease), whereas in the Americas a rise in the incidence was reported [1]. A reduction of 22% of people at-risk was reported in the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa region from the year 2010 to 2018. An overall reduction in the malaria mortality rate was reported in 2018 in comparison to 2010 in WHO Africa (from 533 000 to 380 000) and South-East Asia (from 39000to 12,000) regions. The reduction rate of malaria mortality has lowered since 2016, indicating the trends of malaria case incidence and gaps of malaria control strategies [1]

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