Characterizing the spatial epidemiology of urban malaria infection in Accra, Ghana (MUSE)

总结 加纳是恶性疟原虫疟疾负担最重的国家之一， 近年来不断增加。在研究和方案努力方面存在着严重的差距， 高负担国家城市环境中的疟疾流行病学。本项目的总体研究目标是 建立证据基础，以确定有效监测和针对干预措施的战略 适合于加纳阿克拉的城市环境，这是一个典型的高负担国家的非洲城市。 通过配对临床发病率数据和三个以家庭为基础的横断面调查，在13个健康 在设施集水区，我们将：1）描述整个传播季节的疟疾流行病学特征 使用报告的临床发病率和以家庭为基础的调查; 2）量化常规调查中的偏倚程度 监测数据，由于非求医疟疾感染在城市环境中; 3）评估的能力， 常规疟疾监测数据，以确定疟疾感染的精细尺度空间异质性;以及4） 确定感染在家庭中聚集的程度，以证明有针对性的战略是否 适合城市环境。这项研究的结果将填补一个关键的空白，了解城市 疟疾流行病学和促进数据驱动的决策，以确保疟疾控制战略 适合当地的情况，并能适应当地的情况。

SUMMARY Ghana is one of the countries with the greatest Plasmodium falciparum malaria burden, with case trends increasing in recent years. There is a critical gap in research and programmatic efforts to understand malaria epidemiology in urban settings in high-burden countries. The overall research goal of this project is to generate the evidence base to determine strategies to effectively monitor and target interventions appropriate for urban environments in Accra, Ghana, a typical African city in a high-burden country. Through paired clinical incidence data and three household-based cross-sectional surveys in 13 health facility catchment areas, we will: 1) characterize the malaria epidemiology across a transmission season using reported clinical incidence and household-based surveys; 2) Quantify the degree of bias in routine surveillance data due to non-care-seeking malaria infections in an urban setting; 3) Assess the ability of routine malaria surveillance data to identify fine-scale spatial heterogeneity of malaria infections; and 4) determine the degree of infections clustering in households to justify whether targeted strategies are appropriate for the urban setting. The results of this study will fill a critical gap in understanding urban malaria epidemiology and promote data-driven decision-making to ensure malaria control strategies are appropriate and can adapt to the local context.