CSU 28/2009: POLIO IMPORTATIONS/ ROSS ON MALARIA TRANSMISSION / ROSS ON MOSQUITO BRIGADES/ BRITISH ANTIMALARIAL ACTIVITY IN WORLD WARS I AND II

Friday, 31st of December 2010

CSU 1/2011: GREATEST HITS OF 2010/ READER FEEDBACK ON MALARIA SURVEILLANCE

1) GREATEST HITS OF 2010

Please see below, for each of the four most popular categories (measles, malaria, polio, all other), a list of the 10 updates most often consulted last year by you, my readers, on the website www.childsurvival.net. In each category, items are listed in order by number of hits, most popular update first, based on the first 4000 hits since the website's recent inception. Four items, all on measles, had >100 hits each. In the 'all other' category, three items refer to disease eradication, three to to new vaccines, and two each to the Millennium Development Goals and HIV/AIDS prevention.

To consult a particular item, go to the Child Survival Internet site and type in the number of the update, or a word or phrase from the subject line.

A few factoids:

The most popular item, with 103 hits, is ‘Global Measles Update,’ still consulted two years after its first appearance.
The most consulted reader comment, with 100 hits, is from Professor Sam Katz of Duke University, on the comparative clinical picture and epidemiology of polio and measles. Worth a look.
Of the >300 items posted on the page, the most popular 50 items accounted for over 60 percent of all hits. You, my readers, read voraciously but selectively.
Nobody has, as of this writing, consulted the updates devoted to tobacco or birth spacing. This is odd. If I were a cash strapped health minister looking for ways to cut mortality, I would double the tax on cigarettes and use the proceeds to promote birth spacing. Less cancer, lower U5MR, then plaudits in 2015 for reaching MDG4 faster than the country next door.

Although not an update, the lecture work of Hans Rosling, of the Karolinska Institute, may deserve a visit. His lectures are available at http://www.economist.com/node/21013330

Good viewing.

Bob Davis

PS. Calling all techies! Is there a simple way to convert a PowerPoint into a URL address? My only regret is my inability to send attachments to my mailing lists, since many attachments bounce. A bottle of your favorite beverage to the first reader with a good answer to this question.

MEASLES
CSU 9/2008: GLOBAL MEASLES UPDATE	108
CSU 14/2008: TWO ON MEASLES	107
CSU 5/2008: POLIO COMPARED TO MEASLES	106
CSU 13/2008: THREE ON MEASLES	105
CSU 32/2008: SEASONALITY AND THE PERSISTENCE AND INVASION OF MEASLES	103
CSU 20/2008: TWO ON MEASLES	102
CSU 23/2008: DEWORMING/ MEASLES PRE-ELIMINATION GOAL	102
CSU 38/2008:/RESURGENT MEASLES IN THE US/ FOOD STAMP IMPACT IN THE US	101
CSU 66/2010: MEASLES ERADICATION DISCUSSIONS AT THE WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY	78
CSU 13/2010: TWO DOSES OF MEASLES VACCINE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIA	70
SUBTOTAL	933

POLIO
CSU 70/2010: GATES KICKS POLIO / PROTECTIVE EFFICACY OF INTERVENTIONS FOR PREVENTING MALARIA MORTALITY IN CHILDREN IN PLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM ENDEMIC AREAS	79
CSU 77/2010:THE BUMPY ROAD TO POLIO ERADICATION/ CIRCULATING VACCINE DERIVED POLIOVIRUS IN NIGERIA	53
CSU 72/2010: GOOGLE EARTH™ AND POLIO ERADICATION	46
CSU 122/2010: ACUTE FLACCID PARALYSIS IN CONGO, 2010	28
CSU 42/2009: OBAMA ON POLIO/ HOPKINS ON DRACUNCULIASIS ERADICATION	25
CSU 8/2009: THE FINAL PUSH TOWARDS POLIO ERADICATION	25
CSU 125/2010: READER COMMENT ON ROTARY RESPONSE TO CONGO POLIO OUTBREAK	23
CSU 38/2009: HORSTMANN ON POLIO/ NATHANSON ET AL ON US POLIO SURVEILLANCE, 1956 / THE CUTTER INCIDENT	23
CSU 27/2010: POLIO ERADICATION WITHIN FIVE YEARS	21
CSU 52/2010: FOUR ON POLIO: BILL GATES, POLIO IN TAJIKISTAN	21
SUBTOTAL	365

MALARIA
CSU 76/2010: BOOK REVIEW OF 'A REALISTIC STRATEGY FOR FIGHTING MALARIA IN AFRICA'	93
CSU 98/2010: COCHRANE REVIEW, INDOOR RESIDUAL SPRAYING FOR PREVENTING MALARIA	92
CSU 81/2010: DDT REINTRODUCTION FOR MALARIA CONTROL	91
CSU 97/2010: COMMUNITY CASE MANAGEMENT OF FEVER DUE TO MALARIA AND PNEUMONIA	84
CSU 46/2010: TWO ON SUSTAINING MALARIA CONTROL IN AFRICA	75
CSU 2010: GOOD NEWS IN MALARIA CONTROL	54
CSU 115/2010: READER COMMENT/ WHAT HAPPENS TO DRUG RESISTANCE WHEN CHLOROQUINE IS WITHDRAWN FROM USE?	46
CSU 120/2010: TWO ON MALARIA PROGRAMME IMPACT	35
CSU 16/2009: COCHRANE REVIEW ON IMPACT OF INSECTICIDE TREATED NETS IN PREGNANT WOMEN/	31
CSU 10/2009: ALLIANCE FOR MALARIA PREVENTION	30
SUBTOTAL	631

ALL OTHER
CSU 19/2010: NOTE TO READERS/ MALE CIRCUMCISION AND RISK OF HIV INFECTION AMONG HETEROSEXUAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN‏	49
CSU 119/2010: THREE ON CHOLERA	29
CSU 127/2010: ERADICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES	29
CSU 117/2010: HISTORY OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION	25
CSU 51/2009: MARKED INCREASE IN CHILD SURVIVAL AFTER FOUR YEARS OF INTENSIVE MALARIA CONTROL	24
CSU 82/2010: SEASONALITY OF CHOLERA, 1974-2005, AND PRE-EMPTIVE USE OF ORAL CHOLERA VACCINE	23
CSU 126/2010: FOUR ON RINDERPEST ERADICATION	23
CSU 71/2010: NEW VACCINES FOR TUBERCULOSIS	21
CSU 112/2010: FURTHER READING ON HEALTH EQUITY	20
CSU 116/2010: QUERY TO READERS/MATERNAL MORTALITY IN FOUR COUNTRIES	20
SU 30/2009: ABSTINENCE ONLY PROGRAMS FOR HIV PREVENTION/ VITAMIN A FOR MEASLES TREATMENT/ VITAMIN A ADMINISTRATION FOR NEONATES	20
SUBTOTAL	283

2) READER FEEDBACK ON MALARIA SURVEILLANCE INDICATORS

From reader Luis Benavente:

Dear RD et al, re: your question:"Am I correct in believing that are no internationally agreed criteria for malaria surveillance of the kind used in AFP and measles surveillance? Such standards as the ABER (annual blood examination rate), enshrined, for example, in Pampana's Textbook of Malaria Eradication fell into disuse decades ago, and have not, to my knowledge, been replaced."

MERG (WHO, USAID,UNICEF, and others) are working on M&E indicators to replace the classical malariometric indicators (like the slide positivity ratio) that are less useful.

For an example of a program using a more comprehensive set of M&E indicators read our article you quote as

CSU 51/2009: MARKED INCREASE IN CHILD SURVIVAL AFTER FOUR YEARS OF INTENSIVE MALARIA CONTROL, Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 80(6), 2009, pp. 882-888

Best regards,

Luis Benavente