KATAKWI ROTARY MALARIA PROJECT
In Katakwi, most families live by subsistence farming, and malaria transmission rates are staggeringly high. Almost 70% of children under the age of five are infected with the parasite. In 2008-09, we conducted a pilot program combining indoor residual spraying and mass drug administration of antimalarials in the district and found that this innovative combination reduced the parasite population dramatically: malaria incidence decreased by over 80%.
KRMP Phase I: IRS + MDA for accelerated burden reduction (2016-2018)
In 2016-2018, with the help of Rotarians in the US and Uganda, Rotarian Malaria Partners and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we began a careful community trial of these combined interventions in a population of 52,000. Computer modeling by our team suggested that simultaneous use of these combinations would be more than twice as effective as using either one alone.
KRMP Phase I followed three sub-counties over 3.5 years, and examined closely the extra protection afforded by this synergistic combination. Our goal is to prove that there’s a cheaper, faster, safer way to do malaria control.
KRMP Phase II: Sustaining gains cost-effectively: proactive community case management in combination with PBO bednets (2019-2021)
In 2019, with additional partnership from President’s Malaria Initiative, we began KRMP Phase II, a controlled cluster randomized trial of the effectiveness of proactive all-ages integrated community case management compared with ordinary integrated community case management, in combination with pyrethroid bednets infused with piperonyl butoxide (PBO)*. 207 community health workers based in the project’s 85 villages are currently testing and treating clients for malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea on an ongoing basis.
*PBO is able to disrupt the metabolic resistance many mosquitoes in Uganda have formed to pyrethroid insecticides, and restore their susceptibility.
Explore exactly where we work
Interact with our research site map of our iCCM and ProCCM sites.
Travel with us on the frontlines
Follow our VHTs as they go house to house testing and treating families for malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia.