Improving the accessibility of malaria diagnosis and treatment
Malawi has one of the highest malaria mortality and morbidity rates in the world. This issue is particularly acute for children aged 5-14 years old, who are less likely to sleep with bed nets and less likely to receive malaria-interventions compared with younger children. Less severe malaria symptoms can encompass flu-like symptoms, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting, and often result in missed school days.
Since 2009 Save the Children and partners have implemented a school-based testing and treatment service for malaria called the Learner Treatment Kit (LTK). By utilising teachers as a resource to provide diagnosis, treatment and management of uncomplicated malaria, LTK makes a life changing health service accessible to more children.
Save the Children’s Learner Treatment Kit (LTK), a basic first aid kit for the testing and treatment of malaria and other minor ailments, addresses the high burden of malaria experienced by children in a school-based health setting. LTK is a social innovation that trains teachers to provide early malaria diagnosis and treatment for non-complicated malaria cases within schools and timely referrals for more complicated cases.
Now, thanks to a partnership with the Judith Neilson Foundation, the program will be scaled up in Malawi. In helping to identify and treat cases of malaria earlier in school children, this program contributes towards the reduction of cases treated in hospitals. In turn, this helps improve student attendance and reduce learning loss as a result of both illness and time spent travelling to health centres for testing and treatment.
The generous philanthropic investment in this project will expand the LTK project to an additional 150 Malawian schools, train 600 teachers to be LTK dispensers, and ultimately benefit 220,000 school students. The Malawi Government has committed to the replenishment of LTK supplies in participating schools to ensure sustainability, demonstrating their interest to scale up the innovation nationwide.
Thanks to this partnership with the Judith Neilson Foundation launched on World Malaria Day, we look forward to extending this vital school-based health service to more school students, improving their health and giving them the opportunity to focus on their education.