Use of Supervision Data to Improve Quality of Care for Malaria in Pregnancy: Experience in Six African Countries.

Malaria in pregnancy (MiP) intervention coverage, especially intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), lags behind other global malaria indicators. In 2020, across Africa, only 32% of eligible pregnant women received at least three IPTp doses, despite high antenatal care attendance. We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected during Outreach Training and Supportive Supervision visits from 2019 to 2020 to assess quality of care and explore factors contributing to providers' competence in providing IPTp, insecticide-treated nets, malaria case management, and respectful maternity care.

Human leukocyte antigen class I polymorphisms influence the mild clinical manifestation of Plasmodium falciparum infection in Ghanaian children.

A prospective study that included 429 children for active detection of mild malaria was conducted in a coastal region of Ghana to reveal whether the incidence of malaria is affected by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) polymorphism. During 12 months of follow-up, 85 episodes of mild clinical malaria in 74 individuals were observed, and 34 episodes among them were accompanied with significant parasitemia at >5000 infected red blood cells per cubic millimeter. Attributable and relative risks conferred by genetic factors in the HLA region were evaluated by comparison of the incidence in children, stratified by carrier status, of a given allele of HLA-A, -B, -DRB1 and TNFA promoter polymorphism.