Sahel, savana, riverine and urban malaria in West Africa: Similar control policies with different outcomes

The study sites for the West African ICEMR are in three countries (The Gambia, Senegal, Mali) and are located within 750 km of each other. In addition, the National Malaria Control Programmes of these countries have virtually identical policies: (1) Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) for the treatment of symptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infection, (2) Long-Lasting Insecticide-treated bed Nets (LLINs) to reduce the Entomololgic Inoculation Rate (EIR), and (3) sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine for the Intermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria during pregnancy (IPTp). However, the prevalence of P. falciparum malaria and the status of malaria control vary markedly across the four sites with differences in the duration of the transmission season (from 4–5 to 10–11 months), the intensity of transmission (with EIRs from unmeasurably low to 4–5 per person per month), multiplicity of infection (from a mean of 1.0 to means of 2–5) and the status of malaria control (from areas which have virtually no control to areas that are at the threshold of malaria elimination). The most important priority is the need to obtain comparable data on the population-based prevalence, incidence and transmission of malaria before new candidate interventions or combinations of interventions are introduced for malaria control.

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► The ICEMR study sites in West Africa are within 750 km of each other in The Gambia, Senegal and Mali.
► These three countries have virtually identical malaria control policies, based on ACTs, LLINs and IPTp.
► In contrast, they vary markedly in the intensity of transmission and extent of malaria control.
► The most important priority is the need to obtain baseline epidemiologic, human impact and transmission data.