The Role of Rural Health Centres in the Detection and Management of Malaria Outbreaks in a Low Transmission Setting of Choma District, Zambia

Abstract

The Southern Province of Zambia has been afflicted with malaria for many years, but in recent times, with the success of the national malaria control programme, malaria transmission has declined significantly and is now at low ebb. This success has been attributed to the effective use of indoor residual spraying, proper use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets provided to the people, as well as the use of artemisinin combination therapies in all rural health centres (RHCs) to treat clinical malaria cases at health facilities as well as in the communities by trained community health workers (CHWs). Despite this success and in trying to understand the epidemiology and control of malaria in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, it has been clear that local elimination is most unlikely due many challenges such as lack of incentives for CHWs who are the first link of the community to the health care system, inability of the officially approved rapid diagnostic tests to detect low level parasitemia in asymptomatic individuals, and anti-malaria stock-outs in RHCs, especially during the rainy season when most areas are unreachable due to impassable roads. This paper discusses the role of RHCs in the detection and management of malaria outbreaks in low transmission settings and the challenges of achieving elimination in Choma District, Southern Province, Zambia. These challenges could adversely impact malaria elimination if they remain unanswered.