Three years after the National Malaria Center began training local volunteers to diagnose and treat malaria in their fellow villagers, fatality rates have dropped and more people are seeking treatment in the 45 villages where the program is in place.
The evidence is encouraging, as the Village Malaria Worker Program is in the midst of an expansion that will increase its reach to 300 villages in 12 provinces.
The program trains two volunteers—one male and one female—to administer finger-prick diagnostic tests and drugs to villagers in remote, malaria-endemic areas where there are few health centers.
A pilot version of the program was launched by the European Commission’s malaria program in 2001 in 36 villages in Ratanakkiri province. Nine villages in Koh Kong province joined the following year.
Since launching the expansion in September, the National Malaria Center and the World Health Organization have already surveyed 350 remote villages and will study about 250 more before choosing new program sites, said Dr Abdur Rashid, malaria control consultant with the WHO.
A $1 million grant from the second round of the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria —an independent financial body supported by international donors—will support the project for the next five years, said Dr Chea Ngoun, team leader of the project, at the national center’s annual conference earlier this month. The first installment of that money arrived in January.
In 2003, only two of the 3,027 diagnosed malaria cases in the 36 Ratanakkiri villages where the volunteers are in place were fatal, down from seven fatal cases in 2002, according to figures from the center. The fatality rate in those villages is far lower than at the national or provincial level, Chea Ngoun said.
In Ratanakkiri and Koh Kong, the percentage of children who received treatment within three days of falling ill shot up to 75 percent from 35 percent. About 75 percent of malaria patients in villages with volunteers sought treatment from the program.
The program has been a success in Ratanakkiri, provincial malaria supervisor Dr Hoy Vannara said Wednesday.
As financial support for the project has bounced among various groups over the years—the European Commission, German Technical Cooperation program and the WHO have all carried the project at some point —the security of the Global Fund grant is a relief, Hoy Vannara said.
The center and the WHO hope to choose the new villages by June, Rashid said, and then proceed with selecting and training the volunteers.
Volunteers must be able to read and write and be respected by their communities, Rashid said. They receive a bicycle and a $2 monthly stipend.
at monthly meetings with provincial health staff and a bicycle.
to use in making their rounds.
