Projected health impact of post-discharge malaria chemoprevention among children under the age of five years with severe malarial anaemia in Africa: a modelling analysis
Document Type
Article
Department
Paediatrics and Child Health (East Africa)
Abstract
Children recovering from severe malarial anaemia (SMA) remain at high risk of readmission and death after discharge from hospital. However, a recent trial found that post-discharge malaria chemoprevention (PDMC) reduces this risk. We developed a mathematical model describing the daily incidence of uncomplicated and severe malaria requiring readmission among 0-5 year-old children after hospitalised SMA. We fitted the model to a multicentre clinical PDMC trial using Bayesian methods. We then modelled the potential impact of PDMC across malaria-endemic African countries. In the 19 highest-burden countries, we estimate that only 2-5 children need to be given PDMC to prevent one hospitalised malaria episode, and less than 100 to prevent one death. If all hospitalised SMA cases access PDMC, 37,000 (range 16,000-84,000) malariaassociated readmissions could be prevented annually, depending on access to hospital care. We estimate that recurrent SMA post-discharge constitutes 18-29% of all SMA episodes in higher transmission settings.
Publication (Name of Journal)
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
Recommended Citation
Okell, L.,
Kwambai, T.,
Dhabangi, A.,
Khairallah, C.,
Gondwe, T. N.,
Mousa, A.,
Kuhl, M. J.,
Opoka, R.,
Lucas, T.,
Idro, R.
(2022). Projected health impact of post-discharge malaria chemoprevention among children under the age of five years with severe malarial anaemia in Africa: a modelling analysis. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_fhs_mc_paediatr_child_health/283
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Comments
This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.