Research scientist, Monteverde, Costa Rica.
Malaria Consortium, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Glob Health Sci Pract. 2021 Jun 30;9(2):344-354. doi: 10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00528.
Cambodia has made impressive progress in reducing malaria trends and, in 2018, reported no malaria-related deaths for the first time. However, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic presents a potential challenge to the country's goal for malaria elimination by 2025. The path toward malaria elimination depends on sustained interventions to prevent rapid resurgence, which can quickly set back any gains achieved.Malaria Consortium supported mobile malaria workers (MMWs) to engage with target communities to build acceptance, trust, and resilience. At the start of the pandemic, Malaria Consortium conducted a COVID-19 risk assessment and quickly developed and implemented a mitigation plan to ensure MMWs were able to continue providing malaria services without putting themselves or their patients at risk. Changes in malaria intervention coverage and community uptake have been monitored to gauge the indirect effects of COVID-19. Comparisons have been made between output indicators reported in 2020 and from the same month-period of the previous year.In general, malaria service intervention coverage and utilization rates did not decline in 2020. Rather, the reported figures show there was a substantial increase in service utilization. Preliminary internal reviews and community meetings show that despite a heightened public risk perception toward COVID-19, malaria testing motivation has been well sustained throughout the pandemic. This may be attributable to proactive program planning and data monitoring and active engagement with the communities and the national authorities to circumvent the indirect effect of COVID-19 on intervention coverage in Cambodia during the pandemic.
柬埔寨在降低疟疾流行趋势方面取得了令人瞩目的进展，2018 年报告首次没有与疟疾相关的死亡病例。然而，新冠疫情的爆发给该国在 2025 年实现消除疟疾的目标带来了潜在挑战。消除疟疾的道路取决于持续的干预措施，以防止疟疾迅速死灰复燃，因为这可能会使任何已取得的成果迅速化为乌有。疟疾联盟支持流动疟疾工作者（MMW）与目标社区接触，以建立接受度、信任度和抵御力。在疫情爆发之初，疟疾联盟进行了新冠风险评估，并迅速制定并实施了缓解计划，以确保 MMW 能够继续提供疟疾服务，而不会使自己或患者面临风险。监测疟疾干预措施覆盖范围和社区参与度的变化，以评估新冠的间接影响。比较了 2020 年报告的产出指标与前一年同期的指标。总的来说，2020 年疟疾服务干预措施覆盖范围和利用率并未下降，反而报告的数据显示，服务利用率大幅增加。初步的内部审查和社区会议表明，尽管公众对新冠的风险感知有所提高，但疟疾检测的动机在整个疫情期间一直保持得很好。这可能归因于主动的项目规划和数据监测，以及与社区和国家当局的积极接触，以避免新冠对柬埔寨疫情期间干预措施覆盖范围的间接影响。
