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1 – 10 of over 1000Murat Selek, Fatih Basçiftçi and Serkan Örücü
Malaria is one of the most sinister life-threatening disease and generally transmitted by the bite of an Anopheles mosquito which was infected. These mosquitoes carry the…
Abstract
Purpose
Malaria is one of the most sinister life-threatening disease and generally transmitted by the bite of an Anopheles mosquito which was infected. These mosquitoes carry the Plasmodium parasite. Worldwide risk of malaria thread is very hard to deal, because of extreme temperature and climate changes which lead to uncontrolled changes in the mosquito population, as many deaths from malaria occur outside the healthcare system and other infections might be misdiagnosed as malaria unless a diagnostic test is done. The purpose of this study is creating a system which is early diagnosing malaria for settlements adequate healthcare units and non-immune travellers.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study’s system, the authors developed a new medical expert system (MES) process using the decreased rule base to detect malaria. The authors’ purpose was to successfully identify the illness by taking all symptoms of malaria into consideration in the MES (six basic signs, 64 different conditions). In the proposed MES process, in place of inspecting all the malaria-related signs, the authors used the decreased rule bases.
Findings
So as to take the lessen decreased bases, Boolean functions are used in a two-level simplification method. Using this method, decreased cases were evaluated by taking six symptoms of malaria into account instead of assessing 64 individual conditions.
Research limitations/implications
The system can be used in diagnosis of asthma and chronic obstructive respiratory disease.
Practical implications
The system can be used in absence of adequate healthcare units. Thus, malaria can be diagnosed early.
Originality/value
The authors hope that the system they have developed will be useful for settlements in the absence of adequate healthcare units and non-immune travellers.
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Climate change affects the geographic and seasonal range of malaria incidence, especially, in poor tropical countries. This paper aims to attempt to conceptualize the potential…
Abstract
Purpose
Climate change affects the geographic and seasonal range of malaria incidence, especially, in poor tropical countries. This paper aims to attempt to conceptualize the potential economic repercussions of such effects with its focus on Ethiopia.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is conceptual and descriptive in its design. It first reviews existing literature and evidence on the economic burdens of malaria, and the impacts of climate change on malaria disease. It then draws the economic implications of the expected malaria risk under the future climate. This is accompanied by a discussion on a set of methods that can be used to quantify the economic effects of malaria with or without climate change.
Findings
A review of available evidence shows that climate change is likely to increase the geographic and seasonal range of malaria incidence in Ethiopia. The economic consequences of even a marginal increase in malaria risk will be substantial as one considers the projected impacts of climate change through other channels, the current population exposed to malaria risk and the country’s health system, economic structure and level of investment. The potential effects have the potency to require more household and public spending for health, to perpetuate poverty and inequality and to strain agricultural and regional development.
Originality/value
This paper sheds light on the economic implications of climate change impacts on malaria, particularly, in Agrarian countries laying in the tropics. It illustrates how such impacts will interact with other impact channels of climate change, and thus evolve to influence the macro-economy. The paper also proposes a set of methods that can be used to quantify the potential economic effects of malaria. The paper seeks to stimulate future research on this important topic which rather has been neglected.
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Uchechukwu M. Chukwuocha, Greg N. Iwuoha, Chisom M. Ogara and Ikechukwu N.S. Dozie
This study assessed the effectiveness of malaria classroom corner (MCC), school-based intervention in the promotion of basic malaria awareness and common control practices among…
Abstract
Purpose
This study assessed the effectiveness of malaria classroom corner (MCC), school-based intervention in the promotion of basic malaria awareness and common control practices among children of primary school age.
Design/methodology/approach
A quasi-experimental design was employed, involving 206 children of primary 5 and 6 classes from two randomly selected public primary schools in Owerri, South Eastern Nigeria. The MCC was designed and set up in the intervention school (with 103 children) while the control school (with 103 children) was offered malaria health talk. Structured pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data pre- and post-intervention in both schools. Data was analysed using Statistical Package – Stata version 14.1 (Stata Corp, College Station, TX, USA).
Findings
Results show that there was a significant enhancement of basic malaria awareness (p = 0.0003) and common preventive and management practices (p = 0.0202) among children in the intervention primary school compared to those in the control primary school.
Research limitations/implications
The study did not account for actual behaviour change, as its scope was within basic malaria awareness and common control practices.
Practical implications
This approach could enhance awareness and proactiveness of school children towards malaria prevention and overall health consciousness.
Social implications
This could help in achieving a healthy population of school children with a positive effect on their school performance.
Originality/value
The MCC could provide a simple, participatory and effective approach for the promotion of basic malaria awareness and common control practices among primary school-age children in malaria endemic areas. Such children could, in turn, become malaria conversation drivers and behaviour change agents in their homes and communities, thereby contributing to the malaria elimination efforts.
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Patcharaporn Krainara, Pongchai Dumrongrojwatthana and Pattarasinee Bhattarakosol
This paper aims to uncover new factors that influence the spread of malaria.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to uncover new factors that influence the spread of malaria.
Design/methodology/approach
The historical data related to malaria were collected from government agencies. Later, the data were cleaned and standardized before passing through the analysis process. To obtain the simplicity of these numerous factors, the first procedure involved in executing the factor analysis where factors' groups related to malaria distribution were determined. Therefore, machine learning was deployed, and the confusion matrices are computed. The results from machine learning techniques were further analyzed with logistic regression to study the relationship of variables affecting malaria distribution.
Findings
This research can detect 28 new noteworthy factors. With all the defined factors, the logistics model tree was constructed. The precision and recall of this tree are 78% and 82.1%, respectively. However, when considering the significance of all 28 factors under the logistic regression technique using forward stepwise, the indispensable factors have been found as the number of houses without electricity (houses), number of irrigation canals (canals), number of shallow wells (places) and number of migrated persons (persons). However, all 28 factors must be included to obtain high accuracy in the logistics model tree.
Originality/value
This paper may lead to highly-efficient government development plans, including proper financial management for malaria control sections. Consequently, the spread of malaria can be reduced naturally.
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Arezoo Ghamgosar, Maryam Zarghani and Leila Nemati-Anaraki
The use of citation analysis to identify the first 100 articles on malaria offers unique insights into understanding the disease and subsequent follow-up treatment innovations…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of citation analysis to identify the first 100 articles on malaria offers unique insights into understanding the disease and subsequent follow-up treatment innovations over time. In this study, the 100 most-cited articles on malaria were analyzed, and key studies were highlighted.
Design/methodology/approach
The data of the most-cited articles for the period of four decades were extracted from the Web of Science database. The search terms malaria, plasmodium infection and remittent fever were used to identify the related articles for the study.
Findings
The preliminary data of the 100 most-cited articles were recorded and analyzed. The total number of retrieved articles was 55,517. Dondrop and colleagues wrote the most-cited articles focusing on a new treatment for falciparum malaria resistant to existing medications. The author, with the most publications, was N. J. White. The most-cited articles on malaria were published in 35 journals. The USA had published most of the influential articles, while the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit was the leading institute active in malaria research. The experimental method was the most frequent method used by the most-cited articles. There was a significant relationship between the number of authors, the presence of the corresponding author on Research Gate, the availability of the full text of the article on Research Gate, the impact factor of the journal in which the article was published and the international collaboration of authors and the number of citations on malaria. The most influential authors, countries, institutes, journals and articles were specified. Most of the notable articles on malaria were published in journals with high impact factors. A group of journals was introduced as the core journals.
Originality/value
It was found that having co-authors, the presence of the corresponding author on Research Gate, the availability of the full text of the article on Research Gate, the impact factor of the journal in which the article was published and international collaboration contributed to the publication of high-quality scientific products. Updated information on malaria is needed to present and expand the screening strategies to improve health and reduce burden of malaria.
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Tawiah Kwatekwei Quartey-Papafio, Sifeng Liu and Sara Javed
The rise in malaria deaths discloses a decline of global malaria eradication that shows that control measures and fund distribution have missed its right of way. Therefore, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The rise in malaria deaths discloses a decline of global malaria eradication that shows that control measures and fund distribution have missed its right of way. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study and evaluate the impact and control of malaria on the independent states of the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region over the time period of 2010–2017 using Deng’s Grey incidence analysis, absolute degree GIA and second synthetic degree GIA model.
Design/methodology/approach
The purposive data sampling is a secondary data from World Developmental Indicators indicating the incidence of new malaria cases (per 1,000 population at risk) for 45 independent states in SSA. GIA models were applied on array sequences into a single relational grade for ranking to be obtained and analyzed to evaluate trend over a predicted period.
Findings
Grey relational analysis classifies West Africa as the highly infectious region of malaria incidence having Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, Liberia and Gambia suffering severely. Also, results indicate Southern Africa to be the least of all affected in the African belt that includes Eswatini, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique. But, predictions revealed that the infection rate is expected to fall in West Africa, whereas the least vulnerable countries will experience a rise in malaria incidence through to the next ten years. Therefore, this study draws the attention of all stakeholders and interest groups to adopt effective policies to fight malaria.
Originality/value
The study is a pioneer to unravel the most vulnerable countries in the SSA region as far as the incidence of new malaria cases is a concern through the use of second synthetic GIA model. The outcome of the study is substantial to direct research funds to control and eliminate malaria.
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Pyae Linn Aung, Tepanata Pumpaibool, Than Naing Soe and Myat Phone Kyaw
Malaria still remains a significant public health problem in Myanmar and it has a complex epidemiology. Evidence-based community awareness raising interventions are also…
Abstract
Purpose
Malaria still remains a significant public health problem in Myanmar and it has a complex epidemiology. Evidence-based community awareness raising interventions are also particularly needed. This cross-sectional study was organized to explore the basic characteristics associated with knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding malaria among people living in the most malaria-endemic villages of the Banmauk Township, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The Banmauk, one of the most malaria-endemic townships, was selected purposively in order to represent the survey results for people living in malaria hotspots. During the peak malaria season (July 2018), 250 household leaders were invited to be interviewed with structured questionnaires. In addition to descriptive data, the associations were determined by χ2-test and correlation.
Findings
Overall KAP indicated considerably low percentages of good levels, especially in practice, only 21.6 percent showed good practice, 38.4 percent had good knowledge and 56.8 percent had good attitude. Age (p=0.022) and annual family income (p<0.001) were significantly associated with the knowledge level, whereas having fever attacks among family members in the last two weeks (p=0.023) showed statistical association with attitude at a p-value <0.05. Surprisingly, there were no associated variables with malaria practice. In addition, there were negative correlations between knowledge with attitude and knowledge with practice; however, the results were not significant.
Originality/value
The overall KAP regarding malaria was at relatively poor levels among people living in malaria transmission areas. Therefore, new approaches to improve malaria KAP are promptly needed in this community.
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Health education that integrates community participation is essential for malaria control. However, children’s participation is not generally as active as that of adults, thus…
Abstract
Purpose
Health education that integrates community participation is essential for malaria control. However, children’s participation is not generally as active as that of adults, thus turning children into recipients, as opposed to partners in malaria control. The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of how children can transform from mere recipients to active partners in malaria control efforts, by exploring the implementation of a school health education program in Uganda.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative multi-case study involving six schools where the health education program was implemented was undertaken, using six focus group discussions with 72 school children and respondent interviews with 14 teachers and district health promotion staff.
Findings
Children acted as health messengers, offered peer support and engaged in environmental management to minimize mosquito breeding. The benefits of the school malaria program included increasing access to malaria information, boosting malaria knowledge, improving children’s self-esteem and their skill as health educators. However, implementation was undermined by hostility from adults, inadequate time and tight school schedules, which should be addressed in future malaria programs.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that children can play an important role in malaria programs. Therefore, programs should be sufficiently structured to facilitate children’s participation. Practitioners should be encouraged to be conscious of the applicability of the health promoting school approach to malaria control.
Originality/value
This research facilitated a more comprehensive understanding of the role children can play in malaria control, thus providing a basis for their involvement in malaria programs. It also adds to a relatively scarce area of literature on the school health-malaria control nexus.
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The aim of this paper is to analyze Indian researchers' publications on malaria research and to serve as a guide to libraries needing to collect information on malaria. It also…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to analyze Indian researchers' publications on malaria research and to serve as a guide to libraries needing to collect information on malaria. It also seeks to compare malaria affected Asian countries global rank with their publication and death rates.
Design/methodology/approach
For the purpose of the study Indian researchers' publication data which were indexed in Thomson Reuters Web of Science (WoS) were used. Various statistical techniques and bibliometric measures have been employed for further analysis.
Findings
The present study found out 2,020 documents with h-index of 48, published by Indian researchers which were indexed in WoS during 2003 to 2012 and the majority of them were articles (81.43 percent). Malaria Journal is the most favored research journal among the Indian research community which covers 97 papers. A.P. Dash contributed maximum number of 136 (6.74 percent) papers. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is the largest Indian funding agency with 184 (9.11 percent) research grants.
Research limitations/implications
Limitation by geographical area and time, i.e. the study only focuses the research publication of Indian researchers on malaria research during 2003 to 2012.
Originality/value
This is the first attempt to apply bibliometric techniques to analyze malaria research by Indian researchers, and, more generally for a country which is very badly affected by the disease.
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Ernest Yaw Tweneboah-Koduah, Shaman Abdulai, Isaac Sewornu Coffie and Mahmoud Abdulai Mahmoud
Despite the efforts to improve the usage of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) among pregnant women in endemic malaria countries like Ghana, its usage still remains low. Therefore…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the efforts to improve the usage of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) among pregnant women in endemic malaria countries like Ghana, its usage still remains low. Therefore, this study aims to assess the intention to use ITNs and actual usage behaviour among pregnant women in Ghana using the integrated model of behaviour prediction (IMBP) and explore factors preventing its usage.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured questionnaire was administered to 310 respondents using a convenience sampling technique, and the data were analysed using multiple regression. Exploratory data collected through an interview guide was analysed using Kvale and Brinkman’s (2015) five-step approach.
Findings
The findings indicate a significantly positive association between intention to use ITN and actual usage of ITN among pregnant women in Ghana. Attitude and normative beliefs were the most significant predictors of intention to use ITNs among pregnant women. The result further shows that despite the generally positive perception of the effectiveness of the ITN in malaria prevention and positive intention to use it, its actual usage remains low because of discomfort (primarily associated with heat, irritation, heat rashes, suffocation and vomiting, size and design, reactions to ITN’s chemicals and misconceptions about ITNs causing cancer. In this study, the implications are discussed.
Originality/value
This study applied the IMBP to ITNs usage intention among pregnant women in a developing market context and found the model to predict ITN usage intention effectively.
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