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Malaria: Over 60 lakh cases, around 4000 deaths in India in 5 years

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By Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net, New Delhi, 13 August 2014: In last five years, the country has recorded over 60 lakh cases of malaria and around 4000 deaths due to the disease, reveals Na

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" Behavior Change Communication (BCC) has been a critical component of malaria prevention and control strategies. Most programs, however, have not been rigorously evaluated, either due to a lack of funding for such evaluations and/or due to lack of clarity about best practices for measuring the contribution of BCC for malaria prevention and control."

From the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM), the global framework for coordinated action against malaria, this guide is designed to support Ministries of Health, donor agencies, and implementing partners involved in malaria prevention and control to evaluate the effectiveness of their malaria BCC interventions in a more rigorous and standardised way.

The indicators included in the guide have been selected based on 4 commonly used theories of communication and behaviour change: (i) Reasoned Action/Planned Behaviour, which focuses primarily on cognitive or rational processes around decision-making; (ii) Social Learning, which focuses on how people learn to behave by observing others; (iii) Diffusion of Innovations, which focuses on the structure of the social environment and how this influences access to information and behavioural response; and (iv) Extended Parallel Processing or Fear Management, which focuses on how cognition and emotion work together to motivate behaviour. The indicators are informed by findings from literature that have examined determinants of behaviour - not only for malaria, but also HIV and family planning (adapted for the malaria context). The guide categorises the indicators into 3 groups:

1. Core indicators that have been shown to be associated with preventive behaviours for malaria. These include message exposure, knowledge, perceived risk, response efficacy, and self-efficacy, along with indicators measuring the targeted behaviours themselves.

2. Supplemental indicators, primarily reflecting social norms, that have demonstrated a significant role in HIV/AIDS and family planning behaviours but that have not yet shown an association with malaria behaviours (e.g., proportion of people who believe that the majority of their friends and community members currently practice the behaviour).

3. Experimental indicators, which include context-specific indicators, such as those related to bednet care and repair and non-adoption of certain malaria behaviours.

"These indicators - mostly related to practicing targeted behaviors - have clear definitions and data collection tools....For each indicator, the indicator formulation is presented and any additional indicators noted. Also outlined are the purpose, indicator definition, numerator and denominator, measurement of the indicator, interpretations, strengths and limitations. Gender implications are included where they are especially important for the indicator....Relevant references to complementary documents and resources are included for each group of indicators."

The indicators provide a template for the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. Country programmes are encouraged to select from them and adapt them in a way that meets programme needs and is suitable for the local context. RBM welcomes feedback from the malaria BCC community on their use of the indicators as they develop future versions of the guidance. Please send your comments and questions to: malariabccindicators@gmail.com

The development of the guide was a collaborative and iterative process, with contributions from malaria BCC experts from Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, ICF International, FHI 360, Tulane University, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), among others.

The guide is housed on the RBM Communications Community of Practice (CCoP) page under the Reference Documents tab.

Click here for the 72-page guide in PDF format [English].
Click here for the 58-page guide in PDF format [French].
Click here for the 75-page guide in PDF format [Portuguese].

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Malaria Behavior Change Communication (BCC) Indicator Reference Guide

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" Behavior Change Communication (BCC) has been a critical component of malaria prevention and control strategies. Most programs, however, have not been rigorously evaluated, either due to a lack of funding for such evaluations and/or due to lack of clarity about best practices for measuring the contribution of BCC for malaria prevention and control."

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My solution is to send over more doctors and nurses that are more experienced to take care of the Malaria outbreak in Africa. I think that the U.S. should also send over more drugs to help fight the disease. We should help clean Africa up so that the disease stops spreading rapidly. As scientist are now breeding mosquitoes that will not infect people with the disease, I believe that the scientists could come up with a solution to get rid of so many mosquitoes in Africa. I think that the U.S. should use some of the money that we have to send over stronger and more advanced vaccines to fight the malaria disease.

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In Africa the people are beginning to use the mosquito bed nets that have been treated with insecticide to and indoor spraying to control the number of infected mosquitoes. By 2006 nearly all of the African region had adopted the bed net idea. In Africa they give 2 doses of anti-malarial drugs to pregnant women to reduce the risk of getting malaria while during pregnancy. The CDC and other health organizations have been fighting malaria for years.  CDC provides technical expertise in policy development, program guidance and support, scientific research, and monitoring malaria. CDC also conducts research to make sure that we are prepared for the changes in malaria epidemiology that have resulted as a consequence of factors such as the recent increase of malaria interventions, climate change, and population movement. CDC stands for the communicable disease center. In the African region, free treatment and therapy is available for malaria patients. Scientist have started to breed mosquitoes so that they can not infect people with the disease.

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Malaria is a worldwide disease that is killing thousands of people a year. About 1,500 cases of malaria are found in the U.S. per year, but over 214 billion cases in Africa. This is due to the lack of sanitation and poverty in Africa. The African community does not have enough money to pay for the correct medical care that they need, therefore they are more at risk to this disease. Africa does not have a very clean atmosphere, therefore the Malaria disease is easier to spread throughout the country.

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Death that is caused by malaria costs healthcare in  Africa approximately $12 billion a year. When kids and adults are sick with malaria it causes them to be absent from work and school.Malaria is the leading cause of death and disease worldwide. In 2012, malaria caused an estimated 207 million clinical episodes, and 627,000 deaths. An estimated 91% of deaths in 2010 were in the African Region. Malaria attacks young children whose immune system has not fully developed, pregnant women in their first couple of months in pregnancy, and travelers and migrants who are coming from a foreign country. Malaria causes the government to have to pay for maintenance and supply of staffing health clinics, and to pay for the government buildings to be sprayed and treated for the disease. It causes families to pay for drug to help treat it, doctors, house treatment and prevention, and causes families to lose jobs.

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In the early discovery days of malaria the Chinese people founded a malaria fever, that they knew came from tiny insect bites. The Romans later came to discover a plant and bark that treated the fever symptoms. When the Spanish arrived in the New World they used the bark to cure fevers, today the bark is known as the antimalarial quinine, and it is the best treatment for the fever today. The French were the first to notice parasites in the blood of a malaria patient. Later a British officer discovered that the bites and parasites came from mosquitoes. Some impacts that Malaria has had on the U.S. in the past is when workers were building the Panama Canal, the malaria disease infected and killed many workers. There were 26,000 workers and 21,000 of them were hospitalized from malaria during their work. When the Tennessee Valley authority was first being brought about malaria affected 30% of the population when the incorporation was being built in 1933. There was a very high rate of malaria in the southern United States near military base camps.

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Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium.  This parasite can be spread to humans by the bites of infected mosquitoes. There are many types of Plasmodium but only 5 of them cause Malaria. Plasmodium falciprium is the most common type of malaria parasite and it is responsible for most malaria cases. Plasmodium Vivax is a parasite for malaria but it causes milder symptoms than falciprium but it can stay in the liver for up to 3 years. Plasmodium Ovale is an uncommon type of parasite and it is only found in West Africa, it can remain in your liver for several years but does not cause any symptoms. Plasmodium Malarie is very rare but it is only found in Africa. Planmosdium Knowlesi is very rare and is not usually found in Africa. The Malaria disease is so high in Sub- Saharan Africa because the mosquitoes are abundant in small populated areas. Sub- Saharan Africa is very small in population and that gives the mosquitos more room to breed and that allows them to grow and carry the Malaria disease farther and longer.