【Speaker】 Dr Sol Richardson

                      Lead Epidemiologist for seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) programme, Malaria Consortium

【Host】 Dr. Kun Tang

【Time】10-11 am, March 26

【Venue】Zoom Meeting (ID: 823 8336 6033  Passcode: 123456）

【Abstract】

The World Health Organization recommends administration of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) plus amodiaquine (AQ) to children aged 3–59 months at monthly intervals as seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) to prevent Plasmodium falciparum malaria in areas where transmission is highly seasonal. Although SMC has been found to reduce malaria cases by around 75% in clinical trials, evidence of impact at scale remains limited. Effectiveness of SMC programmes is also influenced by the coverage of SPAQ among eligible children, the quality of programme delivery, and the prevalence of alleles for resistance against SP among circulating parasites.

This talk will comprise three parts. First, impact of SMC at scale was investigated using data from the Chadian national Health Management Information System by analysing the association between district-level SMC implementation during the malaria high-transmission season (July–October) and monthly malaria incidence (suspected and confirmed outpatient cases) among children aged 0–59 months. Generalized additive mixed models (GAMM) were fitted with separate cyclic cubic spline terms for each district to adjust for seasonality in cases in the absence of climate data. The results showed around 20% reduction in malaria incidence during months of SMC implementation. Second, the use and adaptation of rapid multi-objective lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) surveys as part of Malaria Consortium’s SMC programme will be discussed, and how hypothesis tests can be used to identify issues in SMC delivery based on programme targets. Issues are then prioritised and communicated to local stakeholders involved in SMC delivery who are engaged to implement improvements in distributor training and SMC delivery. Third, the talk will briefly discuss a new pilot SMC programme in Nampula Province, Mozambique, where prevalence of SP-resistant parasites is high. A study was conducted to assess the feasibility of SMC delivery, and protective effect of SMC by a non-randomised control trial and secondary analysis of clinic records.

【Short Bio】

Dr Sol Richardson currently works at Malaria Consortium as the Lead Epidemiologist for its seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) programme. The role involves managing and designing surveys, improving monitoring and evaluation processes, and planning and conducting research on SMC in Burkina Faso, Chad, Nigeria, Mozambique and Togo. He is also a Consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) and for other clients, and has worked on projects involving global emergency vaccine response, family planning programmes, tobacco control, influenza preparedness and COVID-19.