Reaching all Children Through School-Based Interventions

Miriam Laufer of the University Maryland in the U.S. will boost malaria treatment and control in Malawi by linking it with a school-based mass drug administration program for other neglected tropical diseases, and improve uptake by engaging school children to reach those not attending school. School-aged children carry one of the highest burdens of malaria infection so disease campaigns should also directly target schools. However, there is a high frequency of school absence in Malawi. They will perform a pilot study on ten primary schools, and use the mass drug administration program to conduct a health day for the testing and treatment of malaria. They will also recruit older children at the school to act as health scouts to communicate between health care workers and children who are not in school.