Method for Identifying Spatial Reservoirs of Malaria Infection and Control Strategies

Abstract : —Managing spatial reservoirs of malaria infection plays a crucial role in effective disease control. In this paper, a reservoir of infection refers to one or more interconnected subpopulations that sustain the epidemic at the level of the metapopulation to which applying a (linear) control strategy suffices to eradicate the disease in the whole system. We propose a numerical method to explain the steps for identifying reservoirs of malaria infection within n connected regions with the explicit movement of human population from the previous theoretical results in order to design an efficient computational tool. Furthermore, we determine the minimal percentage (critical vaccination fraction) of susceptible individuals in the reservoirs that should be protected to eliminate malaria. The costs and cost-effectiveness of malaria control interventions were analysed considering two strategies of control. (i) protecting the minimal fraction of susceptible individual; (ii) protecting any fraction greater than the minimal fraction. Cost-effectiveness analysis shows that the less cost and more effective strategy is to vaccinate (or protect) the minimal fraction of susceptible human in the reservoir of infection to halt outbreak. A numerical example provides insight into the efficiency of this approach.