University students' contribution to advancing malaria eradication efforts in Rwanda

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused and spread by female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is a global health concern, especially in tropical areas, where the WHO Africa region published 94% of malaria cases and 95% of deaths related to malaria in children under 5 years old. In Rwanda, malaria continues to affect the population, where rural communities are at risk. This narrative review has the purpose of showcasing the university student contribution to advancing malaria eradication in Rwanda.

The narrative review acquired secondary data accessed from different peer-reviewed journals, Google Scholar, WHO databases, and other sources, to understand the contributions of everyone in fighting and preventing malaria.

There are positive outputs when university students apply their education, outreach, awareness campaigns, and community training toward malaria prevention. People understood that they had to implement those practices learned from student outreaches in ending malaria, and also the improvement in health facilities was adopted to combat malaria, as seen in the country's Malaria Strategic Plan (MSP), which was extended from 2013 to 2020 and reduced malaria cases by 75% and deaths by 50% in Rwanda. It showed that when there is improved awareness and education and also volunteering of young people through information dissemination, the distribution of long-lasting insecticidal nets can eradicate malaria. Also, we have seen that the improved technology developed by university students has designed a mobile application that provides real-time malaria surveillance data. Despite their interests in researching innovation and advocacy, they faced many hurdles that prevented them from contributing fully, like limited resources, funding, lack of connections, and insufficient education and skills about malaria. That is why university students need more knowledge and other requirements to advocate fully for achieving WHO and the country's strategic plan toward malaria eradication.

University students have shown their contributions to malaria control in Rwanda through changes in community behaviors and working with other health workers. Even if there are barriers, students' engagement expresses sustainable outputs and is an advance to the country's strategic plan for malaria eradication in 2030.