Publications by authors named "Tinah Atcha-Oubou"

Background: Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) is a World Health Organization-recommended intervention for the prevention of malaria among children at high risk in areas with seasonal transmission. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, SMC drug distribution was rapidly adapted to reduce contact and mitigate the risk of transmission between communities and community distributors, with caregivers administering doses. To address the challenges and find local solutions to improve administration and adherence, the role model approach was designed, implemented and evaluated in selected communities of Burkina Faso, Chad and Togo.

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Background: Togo's National Malaria Control Programme has initiated an active home-based malaria management model for all age groups in rural areas of Bassar Health District. This report describes the model, reports its main results, and determines the factors associated with positive rapid diagnostic test results.

Methods: From 2014 to 2017, in three peripheral care units of Bassar Health District (Binaparba, Nangbani, and Baghan), community health workers visited residents' homes weekly to identify patients with malaria symptoms, perform rapid diagnostic tests in symptomatic patients, and give medication to positive cases.

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Background: Artemether-lumefantrine (AL) and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) are the currently recommended first- and second-line therapies for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum infections in Togo. This study assessed the efficacy of these combinations, the proportion of Day3-positive patients (D3 +), the proportion of molecular markers associated with P. falciparum resistance to anti-malarial drugs, and the variable performance of HRP2-based malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health indicators related to HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) in Togo, revealing limited data from sub-Saharan Africa prior to this research.
  • It analyzed national health data from January 2019 to December 2021, employing Poisson segmented regression to evaluate changes in nine key health indicators before and during the pandemic.
  • Results showed a significant decline in six indicators, with urgent recommendations for improving healthcare system preparedness in Togo despite some maintenance of HIV, malaria, and TB services over time.
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Objectives: Integrating malaria prediction models into malaria control strategies can help to anticipate the response to seasonal epidemics. This study aimed to explore the possibility of using routine malaria data and satellite-derived climate data to forecast malaria cases in Togo.

Methods: Generalised additive (mixed) models were developed to forecast the monthly number of malaria cases in 40 health districts and three target groups.

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Background: Malaria remains the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in young children in sub-Saharan Africa. To prevent malaria in children living in moderate-to-high malaria transmission areas, the World Health Organization has recommended perennial malaria chemoprevention (PMC). Prior to piloting PMC implementation in southern Togo, a household survey was conducted to estimate malaria infection prevalence in children under 2 years of age (U2).

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Mobile phones are increasingly used in community health programmes, but the use of video job-aids that can be displayed on smart phones has not been widely exploited. We investigated the use of video job-aids to support the delivery of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in countries in West and Central Africa. The study was prompted by the need for training tools that could be used in a socially distanced manner during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Background: In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in areas of high seasonal transmission. Though implemented since 2013, the effectiveness of SMC in Togo was never evaluated.

Methods: This study concerned routine data from 2013 to 2020 mass SMC campaigns for children under five in all health facilities of three Regions of Togo.

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Background: This study aimed to assess the seasonality of confirmed malaria cases in Togo and to provide new indicators of malaria seasonality to the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP).

Methods: Aggregated data of confirmed malaria cases were collected monthly from 2008 to 2017 by the Togo's NMCP and stratified by health district and according to three target groups: children < 5 years old, children ≥ 5 years old and adults, and pregnant women. Time series analysis was carried out for each target group and health district.

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Plasmodium resistance to antimalarial drugs is an obstacle to the elimination of malaria in endemic areas. This situation is particularly dramatic for Africa, which accounts for nearly 92% of malaria cases worldwide. Drug pressure has been identified as a key factor in the emergence of antimalarial drug resistance.

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Objective: The WHO Malaria Report 2019 stated that "globally, the burden of malaria was lower than ten years ago, but, in the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of malaria cases around the world". This study reported changes in malaria cases and deaths at the Togo national level (2008-2017) and presented anti-malaria fight results and eradication chances by 2030 in Togo.

Methods: Cases and deaths were collected from medical records, monthly reports, and notes of 6000 health workers; then summarized by Region, District, year, and specific subpopulations.

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Background: In Togo, the National Malaria Control Programme, in collaboration with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has implemented a pilot study for malaria sentinel surveillance since 2017, which consists of collecting information in real time and analysing this information for decision-making. The first 20 months of malaria morbidity and mortality trends, and malaria case management in health facilities included in the surveillance were assessed.

Methods: Since July 2017, 16 health facilities called sentinel sites, 4 hospitals and 12 peripheral care units located in 2 epidemiologically different health regions, have provided weekly data on malaria morbidity and mortality for the following 3 target groups: < 5-years-old children, ≥ 5-years-old children and adults, and pregnant women.

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Background: Malaria is a major public health concern in Togo. The Est-Mono district of Togo has a population of 150,000. Accordingly, the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, China and the Ministry of Health and Social Security, Togo launched a nationwide Mass Drug Administration Project with artemisinin-piperaquine (AP) in Est-Mono.

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Vector control strategies recommended by the World Health Organization are threatened by resistance of Anopheles mosquitoes to insecticides. Information on the distribution of resistant genotypes of malaria vectors is increasingly needed to address the problem. Ten years of published and unpublished data on malaria vector susceptibility/resistance and resistance genes have been collected across Togo.

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