Border malaria control is still one of the great challenges in the GMS [3,4,5,6]. Reducing malaria endemicity of neighbouring countries largely determines the success of malaria elimination [15,16,17]. Thus, this paper presents slide positivity and associated risk factors before intensive interventions from China’s GFATM in 2009. The slide positivity rate of febrile patients was 24.7% (91/369) and the ratio of P. falciparum versus P. vivax was 5.7 (74/13). Additionally, a similar active case detection indicated that the malaria prevalence was even higher in former years. The slide positivity rate was 60% (270/453) and the 270 positive slides includes 245 P. falciparum, 18 P. vivax and seven P. malariae in December 2007 [18]. In comparison of the two active detections, the slide positivity was significantly decreased (x2 = 97.7836, P < 0.0001) while the ratios of P. falciparum versus P. vivax were not changed significantly (x2 = 4.3554.8, P = 1.0369). This shows that a high malaria burden was still present during the investigation. By 2013, the GFATM project decreased the API to 8.60 per 10,000 person-years (260/302496) thereby reducing the malaria burden dramatically in the whole SSR2. This success illustrates the importance of intervention coverage for malaria control [8, 17].
The analysis demonstrates that slide positivity was associated with age (< 15 years), altitude (< 800 m), lack of knowledge on malaria transmission and symptoms, the inaction of measures against mosquito bite and delayed treatment-seeking (> 48 h). A retrospective case-control study documented that the Chinese migrants who stay overnight in the lowland, foothill and half hill areas, especially along the waterside in Myanmar, had higher risks of malaria infection [19]. The difference of slide positivity between male and female is not significant. However, children (< 15 years) had a high slide positivity rate (95.1%) in this study (Table 2). Also, a malaria (i.e. P. falciparum) outbreak in 2014 illustrated people aged < 15 years had a high parasite prevalence rate (84.4%) [10]. The demographic characteristics of parasite-positive individuals (children, no difference in sex) suggest that transmission was likely within the housing settlements and also gives evidence of higher than normal transmission in the region. After intervention, if the API is < 1 per 1000 person-year, the program status can transfers from control to elimination, and from there infected cases are mainly imported, male and adult [19, 20]. The findings above highlight the differences of demographic characteristics between endemic and elimination areas.
People’s knowledge, awareness and behaviour may influence their action in self-protection and in seeking treatment, which further affects incidences of malaria infection and willingness to completion of treatment courses [12]. The results highlight that a lack of knowledge on malaria transmission and symptoms, the inaction of measures against mosquito bites and delayed treatment-seeking (> 48 h) were independent risk factors of slide positivity. Decreasing sensitivity of anti-malarial drugs may be attributable to the delayed treatment-seeking and poor compliance to standard treatment course. The genetic diversity of malaria parasites and multiclonal infections are correlated with transmission intensity as well as the development and spread of anti-malarial resistance. High parasite population size and transmission intensity allow effective genetic recombination and mutation of malaria parasites [21, 22]. A sensitivity surveillance of Plasmodium falciparum to DAPQ in the two districts from 2007 to 2008 indicates that the fever clearance time (FCT) increased from 23.5 ± 16.97 h in 2007 to 36.0 ± 16.97 h in 2008 (F = 219.4, P < 0.0001) and the asexual parasite clearance time (PCT) increased from 23.5 ± 0.71 h in 2007 to 41.0 ± 9.90 h in 2008 (F = 1485.4, P < 0.0001) [23]. The GFATM public health interventions improved local people’s accessibility to qualified malaria prevention and treatment [8]. The FCT and PCT P. falciparum malaria cases were 36.4 ± 8.9 h and 53.3 ± 11.3 h in the 2014 outbreak [10]. The FCT has increased 0.4 h between 2008 and 2014 (6 years) but increased 2.5 h between 2007 and 2008 (1 year). The PCT is increased 12.1 h between 2008 and 2014 but increased 17.5 h between 2007 and 2008. The above differences indicate that effective interventions may slow down the declining sensitivity of P. falciparum to DAPQ. As resistance of P. falciparum to several antimalarial drugs, including ACTs, has reached alarming levels in the GMS, there should be an emphasis on providing qualified treatment, a promotion of treatment-seek behaviour and compliance to cure treatment regimens [8].
Being of a young age might be associated with microscopically confirmed parasitemia because transmission in the children was sufficiently high to provide an increasingly robust immune response in adults. Results are almost certainly underestimated as they bias against those without fever. The true prevalence might be higher than estimated here and the magnitude of such underestimation is due to the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria in this population.
Finally, there remain two lessons from this study that may be of interest to following projects. First, the data used was from an investigation that ran from October 1st to December 31st, 2009. However, the findings obtained after reanalysing the old data and comparing it with the updated data are more meaningful. The analysis confirmed that malaria has not finally been controlled in the SSR2, especially in the Salween River Valley. We still need further investigation and more control of malaria foci in the GMS. Second, the study highly relies on the results of microscopy and a sample of self-report-fever villagers rather than other more reliable technics like molecular methods.