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Community-based malaria control in Tigray, northern Ethiopia
T A Ghebreyesus1, K H Witten, A Getachew
1Department for the Control of Malaria, Tigray Health Bureau, Ethiopia.
Parassitologia
|March 4, 2000
Summary
Community health workers in Tigray provide early malaria diagnosis and treatment, significantly reducing child mortality. Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping is now used to improve malaria control program planning and coverage.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Tropical Medicine
- Geographic Information Systems
Background:
- Community-based interventions are central to the Tigray regional malaria control program, operational since 1992.
- A large network of 735 volunteer community health workers manages approximately 60,000 clinical malaria cases monthly during peak transmission seasons.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the impact of community-based malaria control on child mortality.
- To introduce and assess the utility of Geographic Information System (GIS) for malaria control planning and coverage assessment.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of malaria case data and child mortality rates in under-five children.
- Implementation of GIS for mapping community health worker coverage and planning control activities.
Main Results:
- Early diagnosis and treatment by community health workers led to a significant reduction in malaria-related deaths among children under five between 1994 and 1996.
- GIS technology has been successfully integrated to support the planning and assessment of community-based malaria control efforts.
Conclusions:
- Community-based malaria control programs are effective in reducing child mortality in rural settings.
- GIS offers a valuable tool for enhancing the planning, coverage assessment, and impact evaluation of malaria control strategies, with future applications in stratification and environmental impact assessment.