MEI Malaria Elimination Toolkit

Shrinking the Malaria Map

UCSF Global Health Group’s Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI)

MEI’s Malaria Elimination Toolkit provides malaria programs and implementing partners with evidence-based, user-friendly tools to strengthen national and district-level malaria elimination programs. Each tool specifies the target user, from surveillance officers and national malaria control program managers to healthcare providers. These tools have been used successfully in countries such as Indonesia, Eswatini, and China—leading to policy and programmatic changes that are accelerating elimination efforts.

Each tool can be downloaded with its own guidance and instructions. Please contact the MEI if you use any of the tools: Laura Newman (Laura.Newman [at] ucsf.edu). Our team may be able to provide additional support, and we would like to hear your suggestions for improvement. Read more here.

Leadership & Engagement for Improved Accountability & Delivery of Services Framework (LEAD)

LEAD supports national malaria programs in approaching operational problem-solving in a systematic, participatory manner while also building capacity for leadership and management at any level and across levels and ensuring sustainability. It also supports malaria programs to improve teamwork and the quality of service delivery, make data-informed decisions to improve operations, and take critical action.

The District-level Readiness for Elimination of Malaria Tool (DREAM-IT)

DREAM-IT is a series of modules designed to systematically collect information from different administrative levels (from community to national level) on a range of operational capabilities and thematic areas determined to be necessary for malaria elimination, such as human resources, supply chain management and supervision mechanisms, amongst others. Results of DREAM-IT can be used to identify areas of improvement across and within different levels of the health system, informing malaria operational planning.

A Malaria Elimination Guide to Targeted Surveillance and Response in High Risk Populations

The Malaria Elimination Guide to Targeted Surveillance and Response in High-Risk Populations (HRP) provides practical operational guidance to design and implement data-driven and targeted surveillance and response activities in populations at highest risk of malaria. This guide is designed to be used by national malaria program managers and their implementing partners, including non-governmental organizations and researchers, in countries with low malaria transmission. These approaches have been piloted in Namibia, Nepal, Lao PDR, and Indonesia, and further evaluations are planned in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Entomological Surveillance Planning Tool (ESPT)

The Entomological Surveillance Planning Tool (ESPT) is a decision-support tool for planning entomological surveillance activities, interpreting and integrating entomological data with epidemiological data, and guiding programmatic vector control strategies. The ESPT includes practical approaches and minimum essential indicators to help answer programmatic questions about local transmission drivers, gaps in protection with current vector control interventions, and how to select supplemental vector control interventions to address gaps.

Reactive Case Detection (RACD) Monitoring and Evaluation Tool

Reactive case detection (RACD) is a commonly used strategy implemented in low malaria transmission settings to identify and treat infections as early as possible. To support national malaria programs to evaluate and improve their malaria case investigations and RACD activities, a standardized monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tool has been developed. The RACD M&E Tool provides support to national malaria programs in making evidence-based decisions to strengthen their malaria case investigation and RACD strategies. The tool has been implemented in the Asia Pacific (China, Indonesia, Thailand) and Africa (South Africa, Zanzibar).

Transition Readiness Assessment for Malaria (TRA-M) Tool

The Transition Readiness Assessment for Malaria (TRA-M) Tool helps national malaria programs, their donors and their partners prepare to transition from donor financing to domestic funding and management. The transition from donor financing can be challenging for countries, but also offers an opportunity to plan for long-term financial and program sustainability. The TRA-M tool helps countries generate evidence on financing, health system, and program changes anticipated with the transition. It identifies gaps and challenges, as well as strategies to support the transition from donor financing. The MEI works with country programs to adapt and apply the TRA-M.

Economics & Financing

Primaquine Roll Out Monitoring Pharmacovigilance Tool (PROMPT)

This surveillance and response tool is an active pharmacovigilance surveillance data collection tool that monitors the safety of WHO-recommended single low-dose (0.25 mg/kg) primaquine (SLD PQ) for the treatment of P. falciparum malaria. PROMPT supports the roll out of SLD PQ in malaria-eliminating countries by providing national malaria control programs and healthcare providers with the methods to track and respond to hematologic response to SLD PQ and to generate evidence on the safety of SLD PQ in treating P. falciparum malaria. PROMPT provides step-by-step instructions for healthcare providers to monitor potential adverse events related to SLD PQ treatment, as well as guidance for national malaria control programs on how to compile safety monitoring data from multiple health facilities.

Surveillance | Response

Elimination Scenario Planning (ESP) Tool

The ESP tool guides malaria program staff in evaluating the operational, technical, and financial requirements for malaria elimination against available program capacity, technical challenges, and available funding, in order to determine when and how elimination is an appropriate goal. With this tool, malaria programs can make evidence-based decisions about the feasibility of long-term goals and plan strategic approaches accordingly. The MEI supported the development of the ESP tool in collaboration with CHAI, the WHO, Imperial, and other partners, and has implemented the tool in Rwanda in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Disease Surveillance And Risk Monitoring (DiSARM) Tool

The Disease Surveillance And Risk Monitoring (DiSARM) Tool is a spatial intelligence platform built to enable disease control programs to deliver more effective field campaigns. The platform combines a data visualization interface with powerful analytics to convert raw data into actionable information. Programs can generate risk maps using climate and satellite data, estimate the number of sprayable structures in an area, and identify clusters of buildings for more optimal intervention planning. This helps to identify the specific locations where interventions, particularly indoor residual spraying, will have greatest impact and to gain accurate estimates of coverage. DiSARM is being used in Namibia and Botswana.

Malaria Elimination Toolkit

About Our Tools

The Malaria Elimination Toolkit offers approaches that address the challenges confronting national malaria control programs in low-transmission settings. The MEI has built this toolkit around key areas that enable successful malaria elimination and prevention of reintroduction: advocacy, financing, regional collaboration, surveillance and response, and vector control. By supplementing global malaria policy and guidance, these tools aim to accelerate elimination efforts in countries that are paving the way for malaria eradication.