Orpal 3 and 4: Evaluation of the CUREMA project, an intervention for the control of malaria in illegal minors on the border with French Guiana

Gold miners are a highly mobile population with difficult access, which makes controlling malaria in this group a major challenge for health authorities in the country. Currently, the municipality of Oiapoque is considered at medium risk for malaria and a good number of cases of malaria occur among miners who illegally cross the border with French Guiana to work in that country’s mines. These activities are a kind of socioeconomic phenomenon across the Guyanese shield, combining migration, often from northeastern Brazil, of individuals with no previous contact with malaria, and commuting between mining sites and their logistics centers (which are both cross-border and urban). ). In addition, these miners are subject to the phenomenon of “frontier malaria”, whose transmission is facilitated by the environmental conditions generated by the deforestation of intact forest areas. As a response variable, the prevalence (increase or decrease) of plasmodial infection after the Curema project intervention was defined, as well as the modification (or not) of knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding malaria after the intervention.

Two cross-sectional studies will be carried out in the same period (last quarter of 2022 and 2024) before and after the implementation of the Curema project intervention. This study will be conducted at the headquarters of the municipality of Oiapoque-Amapá and in two locations: Ilha Bela and Vila Brasil, on the border between Brazil and French Guiana, resting places for the target population (garimpeiros). In each cross-sectional study, it is intended to include 450 participants to whom, after signing the TCLE, a structured questionnaire will be applied with sociodemographic variables, profession and mobility, knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to malaria, and referring to behavior and adherence to treatment during the last episode of illness and (in post-intervention research) participation in the intervention. A general clinical examination will also be carried out, in addition to performing a thick blood smear, and a rapid diagnostic test to determine the behavior of G6PD and collection of blood samples for molecular analysis of Plasmodium spp.

Project details

Monitoring & Evaluation

Oct 2022

Brazil