Regional Artemisinin Initiative 3 Elimination (RAI3E) – Expanding mobile malaria services in Cambodia

The provincial health departments and operational districts are responsible for delivering malaria prevention and control services at their respective levels, with the coordination and support of the National Malaria Control Programme. They oversee local health centres, as well as a network of village malaria workers (VMWs) and mobile malaria workers (MMWs) who diagnose and treat malaria at the community level, undertake surveillance activities and promote behaviour change. To support the PHDs/ODs in their capacity to deliver effective malaria prevention and control services to hard-to-reach and high-risk groups such as those living or working in forested areas. Malaria Consortium (MC) recruited mobile malaria workers (MMWs – total 101 by the end of 2023) – local volunteers that are well-known in their area – in consultation with health centre staff and local authorities to expand services from three (under RAI2E) to six provinces in RAI3E. Train the MMWs through the HC/OD to conduct health promotion activities to raise community awareness of malaria transmission, effective personal protection, testing and treatment, continuously distribute long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs), to ensure universal coverage in high-risk areas . Support the MMWs to deliver early diagnosis to suspected cases, carry out case investigation, active case finding, identify and test co-travellers of confirmed cases, and treat all confirmed cases in line with the National Malaria Treatment Guidelines. Establish community networks in a number of hotspots by using the community dialogue approach to encourage communities to inform the nearest MMW of any febrile patients and promote behaviour change. To monitor as well the capture of quality data from the MMWs to add in the national system as well as in the internal MC database. Arrange regular supervision visits to assure the quality of MMWs’ services and attend monthly meetings with all MMWs to gather data and distribute malaria commodities. Strategically place malaria posts at exit/entry points of large, inaccessible forest areas, based on epidemiological indicators, population movement and the seasonal context to provide malaria case detection services to at-risk individuals through malaria rapid diagnostic tests. To help the MMWs and malaria posts identify appropriate testing locations by gaining insight into population mobility patterns and forest-going times through the community networks. The MC staff participates in provincial and district malaria elimination committees; the monthly Provincial Technical Working Group on Health; and the bi-monthly malaria meetings, organised by the provincial health departments or operational districts for all implementing partners providing malaria services in their area.

Project details

P. vivax
Service Delivery
Surveillance

Jan 2021 — Dec 2023

$1.59M

Cambodia