Matsumoto-Takahashi Emilie Louise Akiko, Kano Shigeyuki
Department of Tropical Medicine and Malaria, Research Institute, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, 1-21-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8655 Japan.
Trop Med Health. 2016 Apr 10;44:10. doi: 10.1186/s41182-016-0008-7. eCollection 2016.
Palawan is the most malaria-endemic province in the Philippines. In an effort to confront malaria in areas with limited healthcare facilities, microscopists (community health workers) have been trained to diagnose malaria since 1999.
We reviewed the epidemiological data and related literature which analyzed the achievements of the microscopists and their tasks in order to propose a strategy to strengthen community-based malaria control.
The epidemiological data showed that there had been a drastic decrease in malaria morbidity and mortality throughout the province following the launch of the strategy. Microscopists clearly enhanced the feasibility of early diagnosis and treatment throughout the province. However, it remained necessary to implement anti-malarial measures focusing on children under 5 years of age who live in the southern region of the province. The analysis of our published papers also enabled us to propose a new strategy to enhance activities by microscopists to raise malaria awareness in their respective communities.
These low-cost activities are expected to strengthen the preventive measures implemented by the residents and to drive more people to seek appropriate treatment. Consequently, this new strategy could accelerate the efforts to eliminate malaria in the province of Palawan that will be adopted in the WHO's Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030, in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
巴拉望省是菲律宾疟疾流行最严重的省份。自1999年以来，为了在医疗设施有限的地区应对疟疾问题，显微镜检查人员（社区卫生工作者）接受了疟疾诊断培训。
我们回顾了流行病学数据及相关文献，这些文献分析了显微镜检查人员的工作成果及其任务，以便提出加强社区疟疾控制的策略。
流行病学数据显示，该策略实施后，全省疟疾发病率和死亡率大幅下降。显微镜检查人员显著提高了全省早期诊断和治疗的可行性。然而，仍有必要针对该省南部地区5岁以下儿童实施抗疟措施。对我们已发表论文的分析还使我们能够提出一项新策略，以加强显微镜检查人员在各自社区提高疟疾意识的活动。
这些低成本活动有望加强居民实施的预防措施，并促使更多人寻求适当治疗。因此，这一新策略可加快巴拉望省消除疟疾的工作，该策略将被纳入世界卫生组织《2016 - 2030年全球疟疾技术战略》，以在2030年前实现可持续发展目标。
