For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
12
views
25
references
 Top references
cited by
20
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      190
      similar
       All similar
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Trends in reported malaria cases and the effects of malaria control in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          Considerable upscaling of malaria control efforts have taken place over the last 15 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country with the second highest malaria case load after Nigeria. Malaria control interventions have been strengthened in line with the Millenium Development Goals. We analysed the effects of these interventions on malaria cases at health facility level, using a retrospective trend analysis of malaria cases between 2005 and 2014. Data were collected from outpatient and laboratory registers based on a sample of 175 health facilities that represents all eco-epidemiological malaria settings across the country.

          Methods

          We applied a time series analysis to assess trends of suspected and confirmed malaria cases, by health province and for different age groups. A linear panel regression model controlled for non-malaria outpatient cases, rain fall, nightlight intensity, health province and time fixed effects, was used to examine the relationship between the interventions and malaria case occurrences, as well as test positivity rates.

          Results

          Overall, recorded suspected and confirmed malaria cases in the DRC have increased. The sharp increase in confirmed cases from 2010 coincides with the introduction of the new treatment policy and the resulting scale-up of diagnostic testing. Controlling for confounding factors, the introduction of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) was significantly associated with the number of tested and confirmed cases. The test positivity rate fluctuated around 40% without showing any trend.

          Conclusion

          The sharp increase in confirmed malaria cases from 2010 is unlikely to be due to a resurgence of malaria, but is clearly associated with improved diagnostic availability, mainly the introduction of RDTs. Before that, a great part of malaria cases were treated based on clinical suspicion. This finding points to a better detection of cases that potentially contributed to improved case management. Furthermore, the expansion of diagnostic testing along with the increase in confirmed cases implies that before 2010, cases were underreported, and that the accuracy of routine data to describe malaria incidence has improved.

          Related collections

          Most cited references25

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Postwar U.S. Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation

          Robert Hodrick, Edward Prescott (1997)
          Article 0 comments Cited 380 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            MEASURING ECONOMIC GROWTH FROM OUTER SPACE.

            J Henderson, Adam Storeygard, David N Weil (2012)
            GDP growth is often measured poorly for countries and rarely measured at all for cities or subnational regions. We propose a readily available proxy: satellite data on lights at night. We develop a statistical framework that uses lights growth to augment existing income growth measures, under the assumption that measurement error in using observed light as an indicator of income is uncorrelated with measurement error in national income accounts. For countries with good national income accounts data, information on growth of lights is of marginal value in estimating the true growth rate of income, while for countries with the worst national income accounts, the optimal estimate of true income growth is a composite with roughly equal weights. Among poor-data countries, our new estimate of average annual growth differs by as much as 3 percentage points from official data. Lights data also allow for measurement of income growth in sub- and supranational regions. As an application, we examine growth in Sub Saharan African regions over the last 17 years. We find that real incomes in non-coastal areas have grown faster by 1/3 of an annual percentage point than coastal areas; non-malarial areas have grown faster than malarial ones by 1/3 to 2/3 annual percent points; and primate city regions have grown no faster than hinterland areas. Such applications point toward a research program in which "empirical growth" need no longer be synonymous with "national income accounts."
            Article 0 comments Cited 334 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              Malaria: Global progress 2000 – 2015 and future challenges

              Richard Cibulskis, Pedro Alonso, John J. Aponte … (2016)
              Background 2015 was the target year for malaria goals set by the World Health Assembly and other international institutions to reduce malaria incidence and mortality. A review of progress indicates that malaria programme financing and coverage have been transformed since the beginning of the millennium, and have contributed to substantial reductions in the burden of disease. Findings Investments in malaria programmes increased by more than 2.5 times between 2005 and 2014 from US$ 960 million to US$ 2.5 billion, allowing an expansion in malaria prevention, diagnostic testing and treatment programmes. In 2015 more than half of the population of sub-Saharan Africa slept under insecticide-treated mosquito nets, compared to just 2 % in 2000. Increased availability of rapid diagnostic tests and antimalarial medicines has allowed many more people to access timely and appropriate treatment. Malaria incidence rates have decreased by 37 % globally and mortality rates by 60 % since 2000. It is estimated that 70 % of the reductions in numbers of cases in sub-Saharan Africa can be attributed to malaria interventions. Conclusions Reductions in malaria incidence and mortality rates have been made in every WHO region and almost every country. However, decreases in malaria case incidence and mortality rates were slowest in countries that had the largest numbers of malaria cases and deaths in 2000; reductions in incidence need to be greatly accelerated in these countries to achieve future malaria targets. Progress is made challenging because malaria is concentrated in countries and areas with the least resourced health systems and the least ability to pay for system improvements. Malaria interventions are nevertheless highly cost-effective and have not only led to significant reductions in the incidence of the disease but are estimated to have saved about US$ 900 million in malaria case management costs to public providers in sub-Saharan Africa between 2000 and 2014. Investments in malaria programmes can not only reduce malaria morbidity and mortality, thereby contributing to the health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, but they can also transform the well-being and livelihood of some of the poorest communities across the globe. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-016-0151-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
              Article 0 comments Cited 121 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
                Bookmark
                All references

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Filippo Lechthaler: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Barbara Matthys:
                ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6275-1753
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Giulia Lechthaler-Felber: Role: Data curationRole: Formal analysis
                Joris Losimba Likwela: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Hypolite Muhindo Mavoko: Role: Writing – review & editing
                Junior Matangila Rika: Role: Writing – review & editing
                Meschac Mutombo Mutombo: Role: Writing – review & editing
                Laura Ruckstuhl: Role: Writing – review & editing
                Joanna Barczyk: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Estifanos Shargie: Role: ConceptualizationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – review & editing
                Helen Prytherch: Role: Writing – review & editing
                Christian Lengeler: Role: MethodologyRole: Writing – review & editing
                Luzia Helena Carvalho: Role: Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE
                Journal ID (publisher-id): plos
                Journal ID (pmc): plosone
                Title: PLoS ONE
                Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203
                Publication date (Electronic): 25 July 2019
                Publication date Collection: 2019
                Volume: 14
                Issue: 7
                Electronic Location Identifier: e0219853
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Swiss Centre for International Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Canton of Basel Stadt, Switzerland
                [2 ] University of Basel, Basel, Canton of Basel Stadt, Switzerland
                [3 ] School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Zollikofen, Canton of Bern, Switzerland
                [4 ] Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Basel, Basel, Canton of Basel Stadt, Switzerland
                [5 ] Soins de Santé en Milieu Rural (non-profit organization SANRU), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
                [6 ] Tropical Medicine Department, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
                [7 ] National Malaria Control Program, Ministry of Health, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
                [8 ] Epidemiology and Public Health Department, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Canton of Basel Stadt, Switzerland
                [9 ] The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
                Instituto Rene Rachou, BRAZIL
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: ES and JB work for the Global Fund. Both co-authors have exclusively contributed to the study protocol and to the proofreading of the manuscript and therefore had no influence on the results. Otherwise, the authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6275-1753
                Article
                Publisher ID: PONE-D-19-02759
                DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219853
                PMC ID: 6658057
                PubMed ID: 31344062
                SO-VID: 3d854d88-aa41-48df-b9b0-7b28ca82ce1a
                Copyright © © 2019 Lechthaler et al
                License:

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Date received : 29 January 2019
                Date accepted : 2 July 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 7, Tables: 3, Pages: 20
                Funding
                The malaria rapid impact assessment that built the basis for this manuscript was financed by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Parasitic Diseases
                Subject: Malaria
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Tropical Diseases
                Subject: Malaria
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Health Care
                Subject: Patients
                Subject: Outpatients
                Subject: Research and Analysis Methods
                Subject: Research Facilities
                Subject: Research Laboratories
                Subject: Government Laboratories
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Parasitology
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Agriculture
                Subject: Agrochemicals
                Subject: Insecticides
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Organisms
                Subject: Eukaryota
                Subject: Protozoans
                Subject: Parasitic Protozoans
                Subject: Malarial Parasites
                Subject: People and Places
                Subject: Population Groupings
                Subject: Age Groups
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Health Care
                Subject: Health Services Administration and Management
                Custom metadata
                Data Availability Data cannot be shared publicly because data is property of the Congolese National Malaria Control Program and was collected for their own purposes. Contact information to which data requests can be sent is: PNLP NATIONAL RDC, No1, Av. Tourisme, Commune de Ngaliema, Kinshasa-RDC, email: pnlp.rdc@ 123456gmail.com .

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_

                Similar content190

                See all similar

                Cited by20

                See all cited by

                Most referenced authors440

                See all reference authors