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

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R21 · $183,354 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

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.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10796900
Project number
5R21AI171225-02
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
Principal Investigator
Gordon Akanzuwine Awandare
Activity code
R21
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
$183,354
Award type
5
Project period
2023-02-28 → 2026-01-31