Geospatial Modeled Analysis and Laboratory Based Technology for Determination of Malaria Risk and Burden in a Rural Community

Introduction:Geographical Information System (GIS) has proven to be very useful for large scale mapping of ecosystems, land use and cover, disease prevalence, risk mapping and forecasting. GIS establish relationship or link between vector borne diseases and associated environmental factors thereby providing explanation for spatial distribution pattern, possible causes of diseases outbreak andimplications on the community.Aims and Objectives:Our approach in this study was to define and identify areas and places that are exposed to Malaria risk through proximity analysis and to compare geospatial risk with laboratory diagnosed malaria epidemiology. Methodology:Garmin GPS was used to capture the geographic coordinates of six (6) selected settlements and overlaid with georeferenced and processed satellite images in the study area. GIS modeling was performed on risk factors using weighted overlay technique to produce malaria risk map. A total of One hundred and thirty-five (135) vulnerable individuals were diagnosed for Malaria with light Olympus microscope and rapid diagnostic kit (RDT). Data were entered and analyzed using R-Package for Statistical Computing and Graphics.Results:Proximity to malaria risk follows relatively the order Apodu > Central Malete > Elemere > KWASU Campus > Gbugudu. Apodu being the largest place with proximity to malaria risk, within 500m radius. The risk index increases as one move away from the center of the settlement. The possible explanation for this high risk could be the presence of pond / lake in Apodu. This is a good breeding site for mosquito couple with dense vegetation as one move away from the centre of the settlements. Unlike Apodu, Gbugudu was at medium risk at 100m buffer (60%) but the risk index decreases as one move away from the settlement centre. The absence of thick vegetation and presence of numerous open farms and partly cultivated farmlands on the eastern part could have been responsible for reduction in risk index. Dense vegetation and ponds were observed within Apodu, while Central Malete was built up with dense vegetation are possible reasons for the high-risk index, while settlements within 1 km radius around KWASU campus recorded lower risk index possibly dueto low vegetation. The geospatial malaria risk analysis correlates with the laboratory-based test results. RDT kits and light microscopy results showed Apodu having the highest malaria prevalence with 46% and 58.7% followed by Elemere 41% and 30.3% respectively. When calculating prevalence by aggregating results across all communities, Apodu still had the highest malaria prevalence for the whole region. RDT and light microscopy results combined for all communities had Apodu with malaria prevalence of 21.48% and 27.4% followed by Elemere with 11.85% and 12.5% respectively. Gbugudu had the least malaria prevalence within the region with 3.7% and 7.4% respectively.Discussion and Conclusion:Findings of this study showed dense vegetation and ponds within Apodu, Elemere and Central Malete served as good breeding site for mosquitoes and were responsible for the high-risk index at these areas. Settlements within 1 km radius around KWASU campus recorded lower index possibly due to low vegetation. Results from this study indicate that the degree of malaria parasitaemia in the three major settlements correlates directly with the remote sensing data

Strengthening community support, resilience programmes and interventions in infectious diseases of poverty

Background: There is an urgent need to promote innovative partnerships, community leadership and commitment toward strengthening coherent and sustainable community support, resilience programmes, engagement and social mobilization for resiliency.

Aims: This paper aims to strengthen coherent, scalable and sustainable community participation, resilience policies and innovative programmes to accelerate elimination and eradication of infectious diseases of poverty.

Methods: An unstructured and retrospective review approach was used to determine and to define full papers, reviewed publications, and grey literature on the topics of community resilience, infectious diseases of poverty elimination and eradication, and the global health security agenda.

Results: Little is documented on individual and community responsibility cooperation in elimination of infectious diseases of poverty through surveillance and resilience, eradication programmes and interventions. Hence, it is essential to develop joint ownership of community infectious diseases, or emerging outbreaks projects, that can play an important role in research and policy decisions, and advance new cultural and psychobehavioural public health directions. Such an enabling environment is imperative to improve accessibility and availability to essential medical and pharmaceutical commodities in the supply chain management.

Conclusions: It is essential to strengthen effective community-based access to drugs and vaccine coverage and effectiveness procurement systems. This is required to improve access to and uptake of care service delivery and management, monitoring and evaluation of integrated and cost-effective programmes, Sustainable Development Goals, and upholding global health security

Genetic Diversity and Natural Selection in 42 kDa Region of Plasmodium vivax Merozoite Surface Protein-1 from China-Myanmar Endemic Border

Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein-1 (PvMSP1) gene codes for a major malaria vaccine candidate antigen. However, its polymorphic nature represents an obstacle to the design of a protective vaccine. In this study, we analyzed the genetic polymorphism and natural selection of the C-terminal 42 kDa fragment within PvMSP1 gene (Pv MSP142) from 77 P. vivax isolates, collected from imported cases of China-Myanmar border (CMB) areas in Yunnan province and the inland cases from Anhui, Yunnan, and Zhejiang province in China during 2009–2012. Totally, 41 haplotypes were identified and 30 of them were new haplotypes. The differences between the rates of non-synonymous and synonymous mutations suggest that PvMSP142 has evolved under natural selection, and a high selective pressure preferentially acted on regions identified of PvMSP133. Our results also demonstrated that PvMSP142 of P. vivax isolates collected on China-Myanmar border areas display higher genetic polymorphisms than those collected from inland of China. Such results have significant implications for understanding the dynamic of the P. vivax population and may be useful information towards China malaria elimination campaign strategies.

Deciphering emerging Zika and dengue viral epidemics: Implications for global maternal-child health burden

Since its discovery in 1947 in Uganda and control and eradication efforts have aimed at its vectors [Aedes mosquitoes] in Latin America in the 1950s, an absolute neglect of Zika programs and interventions has been documented in Aedes endemic and epidemic-prone countries. The current unprecedented Zika viral epidemics and rapid spread in the Western hemisphere pose a substantial global threat, with associated anxiety and consequences. The lack of safe and effective drugs and vaccines against Zika or dengue epidemics further buttresses the realization from the West Africa Ebola outbreak that most emerging disease-prone countries are still poorly prepared for an emergency response. This paper examines knowledge gaps in both emerging and neglected arthropod-borne flavivirus infectious diseases associated with poverty and their implications for fostering local, national and regional emerging disease preparedness, effective and robust surveillance-response systems, sustained control and eventual elimination. Strengthening the regional and Global Health Flavivirus Surveillance-Response Network [GHFV-SRN] with other models of socio-economic, climatic, environmental and ecological mitigation and adaptation strategies will be necessary to improve evidence-based national and global maternal-child health agenda and action plans