Pregnant women and malaria surveillance

Project Description

To know whether malaria is being transmitted in a community, it is necessary to test community members for malaria parasites and malaria antibodies. Going out into communities to collect samples can be challenging. Pregnant women are one of the main risk groups for malaria, and in most of our region, women start attending antenatal clinics from early in pregnancy. By testing expectant mothers for malaria parasites and for malaria antibodies, we may be able to quickly determine whether malaria transmission is ongoing in that area. We will use this data, compared to data from non-pregnant adults and children, together with mathematical models to understand how well we can use the antenatal clinic to tell us about the malaria problem in a region.