COVID-19 and the malaria elimination agenda in Africa: Re-shifting the focus

摘要

The global Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted inpublic health, political, scientific and private sector response at anunprecedented scale. However, this shift in focus has caused widespreaddisruption to global health services and has the potential to reversegains made in efforts to control malaria. If health systems are not able tomaintain malaria control interventions while managing the response tothe COVID-19 pandemic, malaria cases will increase, thereby placingeven more strain on already overtaxed systems. Using a NarrativeReview Approach, this commentary explores the impact of COVID-19 onprogress made with malaria control and prevention strategies in Africa;and discusses possible mitigation steps to aid community resiliencebuilding, through proactive planning and implementation of integrated,inclusive and sustainable strategies to re-shift the focus to attain themalaria elimination goals. We propose strengthening communitypartnerships, where academia and communities should collaborate andthese knowledge-sharing strategies be implemented in order forawareness and interventions to become more networked, inclusive,resilient and effective. Communities should be viewed as ‘thoughtpartners’, who challenge conventional strategies and aid in developinginnovative approaches to community resilience building.