COMDIS-HSD was a Research Programme Consortium (RPC) which carried out research projects across a variety of settings in order to improve delivery of health services for underserved populations, with a focus on communicable diseases. The RPC was funded by the UK Government and coordinated by The Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development at the University of Leeds. Malaria Consortium was one of six COMDIS-HSD partners.
Acute Respiratory infection diagnostic aids (ARIDA) project
Diagnosing pneumonia is challenging at all levels of healthcare. Diagnosis requires counting respiratory rates and inaccurate counts can lead to incorrect diagnosis and inappropriate treatment. The ARIDA project aims to introduce automated respiratory rate counting aids for use by frontline health workers in resource limited community settings and health facilities that offer improved accuracy and effectiveness compared to current practice for classifying pneumonia
ACCESS-SMC
ACCESS-SMC was a UNITAID-funded project, led by Malaria Consortium in partnership with Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which supported National Malaria Control and Elimination Programs in seven countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, The Gambia) lead the first-ever at-scale roll out of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC). Through ACCESS-SMC, 60,000 deaths and 10 million cases of malaria are estimated to have been averted. Malaria Consortium is continuing to protect children covered by the project through other funding streams.
Programme Partnership Arrangement
Malaria Consortium’s Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) with the UK government has provided us with strategic funding to pursue key activities that we would otherwise be unable to take on. With PPA funding, we have been able to better focus on improving service delivery by improving operational research, expanding our work on neglected tropical diseases, integrating malaria and other childhood illnesses into community services, increasing our focus on artemisinin drug resistance and communicating our learning and improving organisational development.
Malaria Prevention and Control
The Malaria Prevention and Control project, supported by Global Fund and led by World Vision Mozambique, partnered with Medicos de Mundi, International Relief and Development, Fundação de Desenvolvimento da Comunidade, Food for the Hungry and Malaria Consortium, aims to prevent and control malaria through a combination of interventions.
Pneumonia Diagnostics
The project aims to identify the most accurate, acceptable, scalable and user-friendly respiratory rate timers and pulse oximeters for diagnosis of pneumonia symptoms by community health workers and first line health facility workers in four low income countries - Cambodia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda. This research project is comprised of a series of 6 research stages, using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, occuring over an 18 month period. The project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
inSCALE: Innovations at Scale for Community Access and Lasting Effects
The aim of the project is to increase coverage of integrated community case management (ICCM) in countries where the programme is being implemented. ICCM provides community based-care for common childhood illnesses, usually including malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea. This is achieved through training community health workers (CHWs), members of the local community, to diagnose and treat these three main childhood illnesses.
Support to National Malaria Programme in Nigeria (SuNMaP)
SuNMap – Support to National Malaria Programme – was set up to support the Nigerian government and people in tackling the massive burden of malaria in the country. The central aim of the government’s strategic plan is to deliver “interventions that work”.
Pioneer
Pioneer is a Malaria Consortium Uganda project funded by Comic Relief UK. The project works in mid-western Uganda where malaria accounts for almost a quarter of mortality in children under five.
Operation Health
Operation Health was an exciting initiative to refurbish a health facility in a small town called Iyolwa in Tororo district along the eastern border of Uganda.