Dar es Salaam - As the China-Tanzania Malaria Demonstration Project ends, a promise of a scalable intervention that can effectively reduce burden of the disease in moderate and high prevalence areas in ushered in.  During the project summation meeting in Dar es Salaam in March, the Government of Tanzania expressed willingness to replicate the approach of the demonstration project in areas with similar contexts.

Dr. Catherine Joachim, the Head of Programs and Health System Strengthening of the Ministry of Health expressed optimism about the prospects of the project.  She said, “It is our expectation that, this joint project has continued improving practical, feasible and affordable malaria control approaches that can possibly be scaled-up and implemented in other areas of Tanzania and other African countries to accelerate the malaria elimination progress in the continent.”

The National Malaria Control Programme, commended the results of the demonstration project, saying that the major elements of the approach, test, treat and track mirrors the approach the malaria program was deploying to eliminate malaria in areas with low prevalence.

The World Health Organization evaluated the processes of the China-Tanzania Malaria Demonstration Project in Southern Tanzania and concluded that the intervention has a potential of application in moderate to high endemic areas, given supportive policies.

The results of the second phase of the project, presented to during a project summary meeting held in Dar es Salaam on 17th March 2023 showed that Malaria prevalence in the intervention wards declined by 55%. In Wards that implemented the approach, malaria prevalence was suppressed from 25.4% to 11.4%.

“Despite the implementation interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the related challenges in the supply chain and healthcare delivery, the results from the evaluation suggest that 1,7-mRCTR can be effective in moderate-to high-endemicity areas,” said Dr. Jovin Kitau, a Malaria Expert at WHO Tanzania.

The second phase of the program was implemented to observe whether the intervention would result in additional reduction of malaria prevalence towards the national target of 1% in areas of moderate or high transmission.  

The project was designed based on a malaria surveillance and response’ model that was successfully applied to lower the burden and eliminate malaria in China. This approach utilizes malaria cases data (incidence) taken weekly from the routine HMIS at health facilities to select locations/villages to test and treat individuals.

A team of malaria testers visit locations pre-identified as having high malaria incidence ratio. They test asymptomatic and symptomatic villagers and those found positive get a dose of antimalarials.

“We shall promote sustainable cooperation between China and Tanzania in malaria control and engage through bilateral and multilateral cooperation frameworks. The Project is an example of that cooperation and its success,” said Xian Wang, from China Centre for Disease Control.

The results show significant reduction of malaria in interventions areas, despite the challenges that the demonstration project faced. We encourage the government of Tanzania, with support from the China and other partners to pick useful approaches of the demonstration and improve them for scaling in locations of similar contexts,” said Dr. Maru Aregawi, from WHO Headquarters.

Tanzania is one of the eleven countries responsible for 70% of the global malaria burden. The malaria prevalence in the country has decreased by 50 percent over the past decade because of a combination of preventative and therapeutic strategies.

The project was supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China and implemented by Ifakara Health Institute in collaboration with the Tanzania’s National Malaria Program. The WHO evaluated the performance of project.

Malaria remains one of the world’s leading killers, claiming the life of one child every two minutes. Most of these deaths are in Africa, where more than 250 000 children die from the disease every year. Children under 5 are at greatest risk of its life-threatening complications. Worldwide, malaria kills 619,000 people a year, most of them being children.