Evaluation of a new malaria control strategy amongst gold miners working illegally in French Guiana (Malakit)

Illegal gold miners in French Guiana, a French overseas territory (‘region’) located in Amazonia, often carry malaria parasites (up to 46.8% in some locations). While the Guiana Shield Region aims at malaria elimination, the high prevalence of Plasmodium in this hard-to-reach population in conjunction with frequent incorrect use of artemisinin-based anti-malarials could favor the emergence of resistant parasites. Due to geographical and regulatory issues in French Guiana, usual malaria control strategies cannot be implemented in this particular context. Therefore, new strategies targeting this specific population in the forest are required.

Numerous discussions among health institutions and scientific partners from French Guiana, Brazil and Suriname have led to an innovative project based on the distribution of kits for self-diagnosis and self-treatment of Plasmodium infections.

Study Type: Interventional (Clinical Trial)
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention Model Description: before/after study design
Masking: None (Open Label)
Number of participants: 3733 
Number of kits distributed: 4766

The kit-distribution was implemented at “resting sites”, which are areas across the border of French Guiana regularly frequented by gold miners. Monitoring indicators were collected from facilitators (community health workers in charge of the training of the participants and kit delivery) at the time of kit distribution and during subsequent visits, and from illegal gold miners themselves, through a smartphone application.

ClinicalTrials.gov - Project detailsMalakit project website

Drug-based Strategies
Health Systems
Impact of Interventions
Indigenous Cases & Importation

Apr 2018 — Mar 2020

Brazil
French Guiana
Suriname

Targeted Test and Treat (TTaT) strategies