Acceptability and Feasibility of Provision of COVID-19 Services by Community Health Workers to Remote Gold Mining Communities in Suriname.

Gold mining communities in the Amazon region typically have limited access to public health services. In Suriname, the Ministry of Health Malaria Program (MoH-MP) works with community health workers (CHWs), people from mining communities without a formal medical degree, to provide malaria diagnostic and treatment services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the MoH-MP trained 21 of these CHWs in COVID-19 outreach and testing, using rapid antigen tests for symptomatic persons in their communities; afterward, a mixed methods research approach was used to investigate whether including COVID-19 services in the tasks of the CHWs was feasible and accepted among gold mining populations.

Core principles of Malakit intervention for transferability in other contexts.

To eliminate malaria, all populations must be included. For those who are not reached by the health care system, specific interventions must be tailor-made. An innovative Malakit strategy, based on the distribution of self-diagnosis and self-treatment kits, has been evaluated in the Suriname-French Guiana- Amapá (Brazil) region.

Cooperation for malaria control and elimination in the Guiana Shield.

The Guiana Shield, a small region of South America, is currently one of the main hotspots of malaria transmission on the continent. This Amazonian area is characterised by remarkable socioeconomic, cultural, health, and political heterogeneity and a high degree of regional and cross-border population mobility, which has contributed to the increase of malaria in the region in the past few years. In this context, regional cooperation to control malaria represents both a challenge and an indispensable initiative.

From an interventional study to a national scale-up: lessons learned from the Malakit strategy at the French Guiana-Suriname border.

Scaling-up an experimental intervention is always a challenge. On the border between French Guiana, Brazil and Suriname, an interventional study demonstrated the effectiveness of distributing self-diagnosis and self-treatment kits (Malakits) to control malaria in mobile and hard-to-reach populations. Its integration into the Suriname's National Malaria Elimination Plan after a 2-year experiment faced numerous challenges, including human resources to cope with the additional workload of coordinators and to maintain the motivation of community health workers.

Tailoring Mobile Data Collection for Intervention Research in a Challenging Context: Development and Implementation in the Malakit Study.

Background: An interventional study named Malakit was implemented between April 2018 and March 2020 to address malaria in gold mining areas in French Guiana, in collaboration with Suriname and Brazil. This innovative intervention relied on the distribution of kits for self-diagnosis and self-treatment to gold miners after training by health mediators, referred to in the project as facilitators.

Objective: This paper aims to describe the process by which the information system was designed, developed, and implemented to achieve the monitoring and evaluation of the Malakit intervention.

Implementation of a novel malaria management strategy based on self-testing and self-treatment in remote areas in the Amazon (Malakit): confronting a-priori assumptions with reality.

Background: A novel strategy to combat malaria was tested using a methodology adapted to a complex setting in the Amazon region and a hard-to-reach, mobile community. The intervention strategy tested was the distribution, after training, of malaria self-management kits to gold miners who cross the Surinamese and Brazilian borders with French Guiana to work illegally in the remote mining sites in the forest of this French overseas entity.

Main Text: This article aims at presenting all process and implementation outcomes following the Conceptual Framework of Implementation Fidelity i.

In a life full of risks, COVID-19 makes little difference. Responses to COVID-19 among mobile migrants in gold mining areas in Suriname and French Guiana.

Worldwide, the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 disproportionally affect vulnerable groups in society. This paper assesses responses to, and impacts of, the pandemic among mobile migrant populations who work in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining (ASGM) in Suriname and French Guiana. These populations are characterized by poverty, informal or illegal status, and limited access to health care and information.

Self-diagnosis and self-treatment of malaria in hard-to-reach and mobile populations of the Amazon: results of Malakit, an international multicentric intervention research project.

Background: Illegal gold miners are currently key hosts for malaria in French Guiana (FG), with a risk of emergence of resistance linked to improper use of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). The remoteness of the mines and regulatory issues hinder their access to health care.

Methods: A quasi-experimental researched project (Malakit) implemented in FG borders with Brazil and Suriname aimed at determining the effectiveness of distributed kits for self-diagnosis and self-treatment to illegal gold miners, after training, at strategic border staging areas.

Setting-up a cross-border action-research project to control malaria in remote areas of the Amazon: describing the birth and milestones of a complex international project (Malakit).

Background: In French Guiana, gold miners working illegally represents a major reservoir of malaria. This mobile population, mainly of Brazilian descent, enters the French Guianese forest from neighbouring countries, Suriname and Brazil. A complex and innovative intervention was piloted as a cooperation with the three involved countries involved to control malaria in this specific population.

Optimisation and field validation of odour-baited traps for surveillance of Aedes aegypti adults in Paramaribo, Suriname.

Background: Emerging arboviral diseases like Zika, dengue and chikungunya that are transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, are increasingly threatening human health. Blends of human-like synthetic chemical attractants can be used to attract host-seeking mosquitoes. The aim of this study was to test new combinations of traps and odour baits in the laboratory, followed by testing the best candidates in the field to improve Ae.

Investigation of a possible malaria epidemic in an illegal gold mine in French Guiana: an original approach in the remote Amazonian forest.

Background: In April 2017, Suriname's Ministry of Health alerted French Guiana's Regional Health Agency (RHA) about an increase of imported malaria cases among people coming from an illegal gold mining site called Sophie, in French Guiana, a French overseas territory located in the Amazonian forest.

Methods: Due to safety issues and the remoteness of Sophie, the RHA requested the collaboration of the French Armed Forces for the epidemiological investigation. A medical unit, and six soldiers to ensure the security of the mission, were transported by helicopter.

Malaria epidemiology in Suriname from 2000 to 2016: trends, opportunities and challenges for elimination.

Background: Suriname has experienced a significant change in malaria transmission risk and incidence over the past years. The country is now moving toward malaria elimination. The first objective of this study is to describe malaria epidemiological trends in Suriname between 2000 and 2016.

Decreased endemic malaria in Suriname: moving towards elimination.

Background: Suriname has moved from being the country with the highest annual parasite index in the Americas to one on the threshold of elimination. The progress toward elimination in the stable populations of Suriname between 2000 and 2015 is reviewed.

Methods: Data was obtained from the Medical Mission and the Ministry of Health Malaria Programme case-reporting systems, and analysed with a focus on disease burden and differentiation of the disease geographically, by malaria species, age, gender, ethnicity, incidence and gametocytaemia.

Prevalence of Plasmodium spp. in illegal gold miners in French Guiana in 2015: a hidden but critical malaria reservoir.

Background: Malaria is endemic in French Guiana, an overseas territory of France on the Guiana Shield. Since 2005, notified malaria cases are decreasing. However, new data show that malaria affects many Brazilian gold miners working illegally in French Guiana, the majority of whom are not counted in official data.

Triatominae species of Suriname (Heteroptera: Reduviidae) and their role as vectors of Chagas disease.

Nine species of Triatominae, representing three tribes and five genera, are currently known in Suriname. An annotated list of the species based on the collections of the Bureau of Public Health (Suriname), the National Zoological Collection Suriname and the National History Museum Leiden (the Netherlands) is provided. Additionally, the results of several years of opportunistic collection in two domestic environments are presented.

Collapse of Anopheles darlingi populations in Suriname after introduction of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs); malaria down to near elimination level.

A longitudinal study of malaria vectors was carried out in three villages in Suriname between 2006 and 2010. During 13,392 man hours of collections, 3,180 mosquitoes were collected, of which 33.7% were anophelines.

Novel strategies lead to pre-elimination of malaria in previously high-risk areas in Suriname, South America.

Background: Suriname was a high malaria risk country before the introduction of a new five-year malaria control program in 2005, the Medical Mission Malaria Programme (MM-MP). Malaria was endemic in the forested interior, where especially the stabile village communities were affected.

Case Description: The interventions of the MM-MP included new strategies for prevention, vector control, case management, behavioral change communication (BCC)/information, education and communication (IEC), and strengthening of the health system (surveillance, monitoring and evaluation and epidemic detection system).

Ecology of Anopheles darlingi Root with respect to vector importance: a review.

Anopheles darlingi is one of the most important malaria vectors in the Americas. In this era of new tools and strategies for malaria and vector control it is essential to have knowledge on the ecology and behavior of vectors in order to evaluate appropriateness and impact of control measures. This paper aims to provide information on the importance, ecology and behavior of An.

Carbon dioxide baited trap catches do not correlate with human landing collections of Anopheles aquasalis in Suriname.

Three types of carbon dioxide-baited traps, i.e., the Centers for Disease Control Miniature Light Trap without light, the BioGents (BG) Sentinel Mosquito Trap (BG-Sentinel) and the Mosquito Magnet® Liberty Plus were compared with human landing collections in their efficiency in collecting Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) aquasalis mosquitoes.