Busiku Hamainza

Community case management of fever due to malaria and pneumonia in children under five in Zambia: a cluster randomized controlled trial.

In a cluster randomized trial, Kojo Yeboah-Antwi and colleagues find that integrated management of malaria and pneumonia in children under five by community health workers is both feasible and effective.

Got ACTs? Availability, price, market share and provider knowledge of anti-malarial medicines in public and private sector outlets in six malaria-endemic countries

BackgroundArtemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is the first-line malaria treatment throughout most of the malaria-endemic world. Data on ACT availability, price and market share are needed to provide a firm evidence base from which to assess the current situation concerning quality-assured ACT supply. This paper presents supply side data from ACTwatch outlet surveys in Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia.MethodsBetween March 2009 and June 2010, nationally representative surveys of outlets providing anti-malarials to consumers were conducted. A census of all outlets with the potential to provide anti-malarials was conducted in clusters sampled randomly.Results28,263 outlets were censused, 51,158 anti-malarials were audited, and 9,118 providers interviewed. The proportion of public health facilities with at least one first-line quality-assured ACT in stock ranged between 43% and 85%. Among private sector outlets stocking at least one anti-malarial, non-artemisinin therapies, such as chloroquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, were widely available (> 95% of outlets) as compared to first-line quality-assured ACT (< 25%). In the public/not-for-profit sector, first-line quality-assured ACT was available for free in all countries except Benin and the DRC (US

Monitoring fever treatment behaviour and equitable access to effective medicines in the context of initiatives to improve ACT access: baseline results and implications for programming in six African countries

1.29 [Inter Quartile Range (IQR):

Community case management of malaria using ACT and RDT in two districts in Zambia: achieving high adherence to test results using community health workers

1.29-

Community Health Workers Use Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) Safely and Accurately: Results of a Longitudinal Study in Zambia

1.29] and

Reductions in artemisinin-based combination therapy consumption after the nationwide scale up of routine malaria rapid diagnostic testing in Zambia.

0.52[IQR:

Review of the malaria epidemiology and trends in Zambia

0.00-

Impact of Integrated Community Case Management on Health-Seeking Behavior in Rural Zambia

1.29] per adult equivalent dose respectively). In the private sector, first-line quality-assured ACT was 5-24 times more expensive than non-artemisinin therapies. The exception was Madagascar where, due to national social marketing of subsidized ACT, the price of first-line quality-assured ACT (

Population-Wide Malaria Testing and Treatment with Rapid Diagnostic Tests and Artemether-Lumefantrine in Southern Zambia: A Community Randomized Step-Wedge Control Trial Design

0.14 [IQR:

Unexpected diversity of Anopheles species in Eastern Zambia: implications for evaluating vector behavior and interventions using molecular tools

0.10,