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December 29, 2015 Mapping residual transmission for malaria eliminationResearch Article As countries get closer to eliminating malaria, targeting their resources effectively becomes an increasingly urgent question. Swaziland has made great progress in reducing malaria in recent years. Its National Malaria Control Program has reported a substantial decline in cases since 1999, and it has the potential to achieve the goal of eliminating the disease entirely. In order to do so, though, decision-makers in Swaziland need to look beyond national trends and focus more closely on differences that exist within the country – to identify the hot spots where malaria hasn’t yet been eliminated, and where risk of transmission is highest. In order to help in this effort, researchers have developed a model that captures an important aspect of the potential for malaria transmission in the country: how many new malaria infections are caused by each case, and how this varies across Swaziland.
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August 5, 2013 A sticky situation: the unexpected stability of malaria eliminationResearch Article Malaria eradication involves eliminating malaria from every country where transmission occurs. Current theory suggests that the post-elimination challenges of remaining malaria-free by stopping transmission from imported malaria will have onerous operational and financial requirements. A review of resurgence in countries that successfully eliminated, however, finds only four countries failed to sustain elimination out of 50 successful programs. These outcomes suggest that elimination is a surprisingly stable state: malaria elimination may in fact be sticky in certain circumstances. This has important implications, as it changes the projected costs of maintaining elimination and makes it substantially more attractive for countries acting alone, as well as making spatially progressive elimination a sensible strategy for a malaria eradication endgame. |
