Movement
Human movement patterns and malaria transmission
People:
Funders: Imperial College Junior Research Fellowship, Medical Research Council
Disease: P. falciparum malaria
Countries involved: Mali, Tanzania, Burkina Faso
Collaborators: Malaria Research and Training Centre, Mali; Centre National de Recherche et de Formation sur le Paludisme, Burkina Faso.
Movement of people between areas of high and low transmission will impact the effectiveness of control interventions. For example, if local elimination is achieved through extensive interventions, frequent movement of infected individuals into that area could increase the time over which the intervention will have to be held in place to prevent resurgence of the disease.
Whilst movement patterns have been shown to be of importance in designing interventions for a number of diseases, there are very few studies of travel within Africa. In particular, there is a paucity of data on overnight visits, which are important for malaria since mosquitoes bite in the evenings. We propose to quantify some of these patterns through a combination of datasources.
We are gathering data on movement patterns in Africa through a number of approaches, including movement questionnaires. We are also conducting modelling studies to investigate the impact of movements on transmission of malaria.
