Estimated distribution of malaria cases among children in sub-Saharan Africa by specified age categories using data from the Global Burden of Diseases 2019

Abstract Background Children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain the most vulnerable to malaria and malaria mortality. This study estimated the disease burden and distribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria among children with age categories (0 to < 2 years, 2 to < 6 years, 6 to < 12 years...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Malaria Journal
Main Authors: Olorunfemi A. Oshagbemi, Pedro Lopez-Romero, Cornelis Winnips, Katalin R. Csermak, Guoqin Su, Elodie Aubrun
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: BMC 2023
Subjects:
Child health
Malaria
Plasmodium falciparum
Epidemiology
Sub-saharan Africa
Disease burden
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Infectious and parasitic diseases
RC109-216
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04811-z
https://doaj.org/article/359ee32a7010422b8b90dbbd333fb0f8
Description
Summary:Abstract Background Children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain the most vulnerable to malaria and malaria mortality. This study estimated the disease burden and distribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria among children with age categories (0 to < 2 years, 2 to < 6 years, 6 to < 12 years, ≥ 12 years) in SSA. Methods Data on the number of cases and incidence rates of P. falciparum malaria by age group from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (GBD 2019) for 11 countries in SSA was employed in this study. The best-fitting distribution of P. falciparum malaria cases by prespecified age categories was derived using a combination of a Log-normal and Weibull distribution. Results Plasmodium falciparum malaria was 15.4% for ages 0 to < 2 years, 30.5% for 2 to < 6 years, 17.6% for 6 to < 12 years, and 36.5% for ≥ 12 years based on data from countries in SSA. The results have important implications for the current drive by the FDA and EMA to ensure the representativeness of real-world populations in clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of medication exposure. Conclusions The theoretical distributions of P. falciparum malaria will help guide researchers in ensuring that children are appropriately represented in clinical trials and other interventions aiming to address the current burden of malaria in SSA.

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