School-Age Children Most Vulnerable To Malaria Infection In Africa, Study Says

Lead researcher Abdisalan Noor, of the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (Kemri)-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, pointed out that people between the ages of 5 and 19 "represent a large fraction of the population in most developing African communities." He added that although people in this age group have "developed immunity against clinical disease, they will not have developed immunity to the malaria parasite and will therefore continue to contribute transmission in the community." He said the findings are significant because they identify a large demographic segment that has been excluded from current malaria control efforts (Kimani, 10/19).

The authors conclude that "school-age children are the least protected with ITNs. School-delivery of ITNs, therefore, should be considered as an approach to reach universal coverage and improve the likelihood of impacting upon malaria parasite transmission." In BMC Public Health, they write, "As most sub-Saharan African countries move towards universal coverage of ITNs it becomes important that national survey data can be used to redefine optimal approaches to this new strategy. Therefore data on ITN use must be collected for all household members and not ... for those only under the age of five years and pregnant women" (Noor et al., 10/1).

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