MALARIA: Duke Global Health Institute to conduct IR for malaria control

20 Jul 2010
The Duke Global Health Institute, USA, has received a $2.2-million, 4-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support research by a Duke University-led team to promote sustainable strategies to curb the spread of malaria and protect human and environmental health in endemic areas.
According to principal investigator Randall A. Kramer, professor of environmental economics at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment at the DGHI, the team will conduct experiments in 24 villages in the Mvomero district of Tanzania to assess the effectiveness of different intervention strategies individually and in combination.
Using the findings from these studies, the Duke team will refine a new tool used to improve the effectiveness and safety of malaria control strategies in different settings worldwide. Designed by Duke researchers in 2007, the Malaria Decision Analysis Support Tool (MDAST) was developed to address the controversial re-introduction of DDT in several East African countries by assessing the economic, environmental and human health risks with alternative strategies for managing malaria (1).
In the Tanzania studies, villages will be randomly assigned to receive one of four disease-control strategies: no intervention; treatment with mosquito-larvicides; rapid diagnostic testing for malaria by health workers; or both larviciding and rapid diagnostic testing.
“The central objective is to improve malaria control through an implementation science approach that integrates health delivery and decision support modelling to promote joint optimization of vector control and disease management strategies,” says Kramer.
Marie Lynn Miranda, associate professor of environmental sciences and policy and director of the Children’s Environmental Health initiative at the Nicholas School, is Kramer’s co-principal investigator on the new grant. Their team includes collaborators from Duke University, the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and the National Institute for Medical Research in Tanzania.
References1. Beerbohm, E. A pilot expert elicitation to assess the risks of malaria vector control strategies in East Africa. Unpublished.
http://blog.tropika.net/tropika/2010/07/20/duke-to-conduct-ir-for-malaria-control/