Testing and treatment for malaria elimination: a systematic review

• Published in: Malaria Journal
• Main Authors: Gretchen Newby, Chris Cotter, Michelle E. Roh, Kelly Harvard, Adam Bennett, Jimee Hwang, Nakul Chitnis, Sydney Fine, Gillian Stresman, Ingrid Chen, Roly Gosling, Michelle S. Hsiang
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2023
• Subjects: Malaria; Malaria elimination; Plasmodium falciparum; Screen and treat; Test and treat; Active case detection; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04670-8; https://doaj.org/article/6029e4e815d1407dbf8df27a669a98cf

Abstract Background Global interest in malaria elimination has prompted research on active test and treat (TaT) strategies. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to assess the effectiveness of TaT strategies to reduce malaria transmission. Results A total of 72 empirical research and 24 modelling studies were identified, mainly focused on proactive mass TaT (MTaT) and reactive case detection (RACD) in higher and lower transmission settings, respectively. Ten intervention studies compared MTaT to no MTaT and the evidence for impact on malaria incidence was weak. No intervention studies compared RACD to no RACD. Compared to passive case detection (PCD) alone, PCD + RACD using standard diagnostics increased infection detection 52.7% and 11.3% in low and very low transmission settings, respectively. Using molecular methods increased this detection of infections by 1.4- and 1.1-fold, respectively. Conclusion Results suggest MTaT is not effective for reducing transmission. By increasing case detection, surveillance data provided by RACD may indirectly reduce transmission by informing coordinated responses of intervention targeting.