The role of community health workers in malaria elimination and artemisinin resistance response

The role of community health workers in malaria elimination and artemisinin resistance response

Programmes increasingly depend on community health workers (CHWs) to play a pivotal role in the Asia region’s response to growing artemisinin resistance, but also in support of malaria elimination efforts in general. CHWs are variously trained to reach out to vulnerable and hard to reach at-risk groups, particularly mobile and migrant populations, encouraging appropriate health-seeking behaviour and the avoidance of monotherapies, and providing peer education on mosquito protection indoors and out.

In addition, they are frequently involved in managing diagnosis and treatment of malaria cases at the community level, including remote areas and providing inputs into surveillance and case investigation systems. CHW performance and motivation are key for the success of malaria control efforts and sustainable systems to support them are essential.