News Archive
Meet the Malaria Champions of the Americas Finalists
SNEM-PAMAFRO
Ecuador
Fighting malaria in Ecuador is no small undertaking, but two organizations aren’t just up to the task—they’re making serious in-roads. SNEM (Servicio Nacional de Control de Enfermedades Transmitaidas por Vectores Atropodos) is the organization historically in charge of malaria control in Ecuador. By working together with PAMAFRO, a project presented collectively by the countries of the Andean Health Organization and financed by the Global Fund, the two are reducing malaria mortality in the region. The program is remarkable for being the first malaria control project with community participation that integrates the border areas of Andean countries.
In 2006, an agreement was signed with the government of Ecuador to establish an office in the country responsible for implementing and developing the PAMAFRO project in five provinces. The project’s objectives include:
- Promotion and strengthening social organizations and communities in the fight against malaria
- Increasing access to diagnosis and treatment of malaria
- Designing and implementing an information system for community epidemiological surveillance systems integrated in current national health information
- Developing essential health research
Turning Strategy into Action
To date, the SNEM-PAMAFRO program has trained microscopists, provided necessary supplies, (e.g., microscopes, bio-security materials and furniture, antimalarial drugs) and trained facilitators to implement malaria control strategies. SNEM-PAMAFRO also trained community leaders in prevention, control, diagnosis, treatment, and community policing.
To directly reach vulnerable populations, bed nets impregnated with insecticide are provided in villages where malaria is highly prevalent. The project monitors their subsequent possession and use to ensure they are effectively being used.
Building partnership
For the execution of project objectives it partnered with authorities of provinces, cantons and parishes. The ensuing community awareness for the selection of community leaders appointed by the community involved in a training process continues, with the aim of expanding coverage of malaria control and includes the people in solving their health problems.
Community leaders trained with technical support from SNEM-PAMAFRO begin developing community plans for malaria control, in collaboration with provincial councils, municipalities, health areas, parish councils, social organizations, church, public, private and NGO, among others. More than 110 community plans were developed with a holistic approach.
Full-Scale Education Campaign
Disseminating educational information about the origins and symptoms of malaria is a vital component of the campaign. Radio spots, posters, brochures, newsletters, school modules, and other methods of communication were used to spread the message.
Results
Over the first three years of the project, several major victories have been achieved: 500,000 blood samples were taken, 10,213 total diagnosed cases, and the burden of disease was reduced by 66% in intervention areas.
Dr. Mario H. Rodriguez Lopez
National Public Health Institute
Morales, Mexico
Dr. Rodriguez is a leading authority on malaria and has spent a great deal of his professional career working closely with various partners to control malaria in Mexico. He is the regional leader of the Mesoamerican Initiative for Public Health working to eliminate malaria in the region. In this role, he has been a successful manager in implementing interventions to control malaria and develop an information system for health in the Mesoamerica region.
Getting the Job Done
As a researcher and innovative leader, Dr. Rodriguez formed a working group for scientific and technical cooperation for malaria control in Mexico. His expertise in this realm has made him a national leader in extending technical support on policymaking to control programs. Additionally, he supported and successfully restructured the development of the alternative vector control without the use of insecticides in Mexico and Central America.
Regarded as a global malaria expert, he has produced over 141 articles, published four books, and participated in the preparation of 22 book chapters.
Building Partnerships
He formed a group of scientists devoted to research and service to Control Vector-Borne Diseases Programs in Mexico. Additionally, he also developed and has grown the Malaria Research Center, which later expanded its reach in a Regional Center for Public Health Research located in Tapachula, Chiapas. Dr. Rodriguez has also consolidated cooperative partnerships with universities, research institutes, international NGOs, research societies as well as national health authorities at international levels.
Results
He has extended technical support on policymaking to control programs, with the implementation of targeted control model, providing reasons and evidence, coordinating with the National Program for reducing transmission to up to 70% from 1999 to 2003, including an additional 31% from 2004 to 2007.
He supported and re-structured with successful results, the development of the alternative vector control without the use of insecticides for Mexico and Central America based on the Mexican model, with equally successful results. Positive results were obtained from impact with a 60% reduction in Central America and Mexico continued with a decline of 43% in demonstration areas concerned.
Health Division of the Social-DSFES FES Foundation
Colombia
Based in Colombia, the Health Division of the Social-DSFES FES Foundation is a research group in public health that has spent more than 18 years conducting research, technical assistance, monitoring, and development of public health interventions to control malaria in endemic regions. Their work has been primarily concentrated in the Buenaventura region of Colombia.
The group has conducted 24 investigations regarding malaria with a focus on three main areas: individual, vector, and health services. Their work has contributed to the diagnosis of cases and explanations of malaria behavior in the country, especially in the Pacific region.
Outstanding Achievements
Among their many achievements, one study by DSFES showed that drug resistance to Chloroquine was 50%, which prompted the 1998 Colombia Ministry of Health to reformulate the P. Falciparum treatment scheme on the Colombian Pacific Coast. From a socio-ecological approach, DSFES has established individual and population factors associated with malaria transmission, which has aided in developing an educational program that involves the community as well as researchers. This emphasis on community management, and based on the community’s ability to generate social mobilization for disease control, has resulted in a very innovative program.
As a consultant to RAVREDA (Amazon Network for the Surveillance of Antimalarial Drug Resistance), DSFES participated in designing pilot studies of antimalarial drugs to be completed in Colombia. As a result of the investigations, DSFES created an educational strategy called “The World of Malaria—Learning to Manage in Community.” Working with the community, DSFES developed a series of educational materials and methodologies to develop community projects that control malaria.
The DSFES contributed fundamental policy change in malaria treatment scheme for P. Falciparum in the Colombian Pacific Coast and the launch of a Sentinel Surveillance System for treatment failure P. Uncomplicated falciparum.
Results
By developing and implementing a malaria education strategy, DSFES has directly influenced communities and helped train 2,772 people in 359 locations. This work increased knowledge of combating malaria from 50% to 90%. In target communities, during the period of 1992 – 1997, there was an 8% decline in the frequency of malaria.
Building Partnerships
The DSFES leadership has been characterized by partnerships between public, private and community organizations, the best known case is the agreement of the Pacific Institute of Health-INSALPA created in 1991 signed between local authorities in health, academia and NGOs.
DSFES also has allowed the strengthening of local and national capacity to control the disease at two levels: community and institutional. At the community level, it has allowed the strengthening and creation of interactions between existing community associations in localities, through implementation of the educational strategy designed to raise malaria knowledge and influence the practices of the people against malaria in endemic communities, through the implementation of community projects for malaria control.
