IMPACT 2: Evaluating policies in Tanzania to improve malaria diagnosis and treatment

It is generally agreed that artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) are the best treatment for malaria, but it is less clear how it should be deployed by national programmes. Some countries have started to improve this process, on the one hand, by making ACTs more accessible to patients and, on the other hand, by targeting ACTs more effectively to patients who have malaria. The government of Tanzania has addressed both ACT access and targeting on a national scale. Poor access has been be tackled by the Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm), an initiative which distributed subsidised ACTs through public and private facilities and retail drug shops. Targeting has been addressed through introducing rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) in public health facilities. The team used surveys of public health facilities, private antimalarial outlets and households. Through these they have assessed the impact on availability, affordability and quality of treatment, as well as coverage at a community level. In addition, the team conducted a cluster randomised controlled trial to assess how effective sending SMS messages to drug shop staff was in improving the way patients took their ACT medication (known as patient adherence). Finally, they have used qualitative methods to explore the socio-cultural context and other factors that influence the implementation and outcome of the two interventions.

Impact of Interventions
Operational Research

Oct 2008 — Nov 2014

$5.02M

Tanzania