Optimising malaria surveillance and response strategies to achieve elimination

Moving from malaria control to elimination requires strong and timely case-based surveillance and response systems. National malaria programs are recommended to define a suitable schedule for case investigation, case detection and focus investigation, and conduct regular monitoring and evaluation of their surveillance systems.

Objective

To achieve elimination by 2030, many countries in the Greater Subregion of Southeast Asia are adopting the 1-3-7 strategy devised by China to achieve malaria elimination. This strategy entails case notification within 1 day, case investigation within 3 days, and foci investigation and appropriate public health response within 7 days.

This mixed-methods, multi-national evaluation study aims to investigate how Greater Mekong Subregion countries are applying surveillance and response strategies (including the 1-3-7 strategy) in malaria elimination programs, and how these strategies may be optimised and synthesised in the context of existing national health systems.

Timeline

2021–2023.

Approach

This research includes a formative assessment of current approaches and systems for malaria surveillance and response in the region, and the development of optimal surveillance and response strategies for malaria elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion including pilot implementation of an optimised approach in order to inform refinements of proposed strategies.

Community impact

Findings from this research project will improve the quality, effectiveness, and coverage of existing 1-3-7 malaria elimination strategies for achieving regional malaria elimination.