Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111424

John M. Miller, MA MPH, Roll Back Malaria Department, World Health Organization, 20 via Appia, Geneva, 1211, Switzerland, 41 22 791 3620, millerj@who.int

Global malaria surveillance efforts during the malaria eradication era focused on routine reporting of malaria cases and deaths from national health information systems. Strategies of malaria control, such as those adopted under the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) campaign, require a broader role for malaria monitoring, especially in areas with persistent or intense malaria transmission. In order to monitor progress toward global targets on reductions in malaria burden, country-reported malaria cases and deaths from routine health information systems are not sufficient in many malaria endemic countries. Annual reporting efforts by countries to the World Health Organization should incorporate measures of reporting system performance and distinguish efforts to actively detect malaria parasitemia. The presence of multiple, often overlapping, malaria surveillance systems, such as Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response and sentinel sites for malaria epidemic detection, can be useful for evaluating overall reporting system performance. National-level reporting should be supplemented with disaggregated information in countries where malaria risk is confined to small geographic areas. In areas with inadequate health care infrastructure and poor access to quality care and treatment, malaria monitoring also must account for changes in coverage of malaria interventions and malaria treatment seeking behaviour. Improving the quality and completeness of routinely reported malaria information will benefit RBM efforts to monitor global progress in reductions in malaria burden.

Learning Objectives:

• describe the current global malaria monitoring efforts
• prioritize areas of malaria monitoring that are available and
• discuss methods for improving global malaria monitoring

Keywords: Infectious Diseases, International Health

Related Web page: rbm.who.int/merg

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation