Extract from Abstract [Related Publication]

Background: maintaining the effectiveness of the currently recommended malaria vector control interventions while integrating new interventions will require monitoring key recommended indicators to identify threats to effectiveness including physiological and behavioural resistance to insecticides.

Methods: Country metadata on vector surveillance and control activities was collected using an online survey by national malaria control programmes or partner organization officials.  Country and regional surveillance activities were analysed for alignment with indicators for priority vector surveillance objectives recommended by the World Health Organization.  Surveillance activities were also compared for countries in the E2020 (eliminating countries) and countries with more intense transmission.  

Extract from Survey:

With the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we are undertaking an evaluation of malaria vector surveillance in countries attempting malaria elimination in the E8, Greater Asia-Pacific Subregion and MesoAmerica. The overall objective is to establish a process to improve malaria vector surveillance, as we believe that good surveillance will maintain and improve the effectiveness of malaria vector control strategies. The process of improving vector surveillance encompasses several components. The following questionnaire which we are asking you to complete addresses the first component: to determine what surveillance activities are routinely (within the last year) carried out in the countries in which you work (if you are involved in malaria control in more than one country, please fill out a separate form for each country). This component includes a gap analysis of program capacity (including training) for vector surveillance as well as a data gap analyses to determine what vector parameters are being monitored, how they are measured and how the resulting vector information informs programmatic decisions. In the second component we will examine the capabilities of our surveillance tools (e.g., can the tools available provide the information that you require for effective decision-making or is there a technology gap). This analysis will be used to develop Target Product Profiles (TPPs) describing the requirements of future surveillance tools to improve how we monitor vectors. 

We hope that this survey questionnaire will provide a high level overview of the surveillance activities in your countries and we will follow up with as many of you as possible to gather more detailed information on what you need to improve the effectiveness of malaria vector control. If you indicate that you routinely collect data on vectors, we would ask for your willingness to make this information available to allow us to access where we need to invest to understand the vectors of malaria better in order to understand where new emerging control methods might be most effective.

We appreciate your taking the time to fill out the survey.  It is our hope that the analyses based on your responses will provide a strong argument for future investments to produce better training protocols as well as better methods for monitoring vectors and communicating that data to decision makers. Individual country data that is collected will be treated as confidential and will not disseminated. However, the summary data will be shared with the malaria control programs that participate in the survey as well as with the E8 Secretariat, the Asian Pacific Malaria Elimination Network, PAHO, AFRO and ALMA.

This dataset consists of 2 spreadsheets (saved in both Excel and Open Document formats):

• XLSForm_vector_surveillance_Multi-language: includes survey questions and choices in English, French and Spanish.
• Burkot_Vector surveillance survey_Aggregated dataset: summary results include type, label (questions/instructions), responses and counts.