Malaria research in the Central African Republic from 1987 to 2020: an overview

Abstract

Background The national malaria control policy in the Central African Republic (CAR) promotes basic, clinical, and operational research on malaria in collaboration with national and international research institutions. Preparatory work for the elaboration of National Strategic Plans for the implementation of the national malaria control policy includes developing the research component, thus requiring an overview of national malaria research. Here, this survey aims to provide an inventory of malaria research as a baseline for guiding researchers and health authorities in choosing the future avenues of research. Methods Data sources and search strategy were defined to query the online Medline/PubMed database using the “medical subject headings” tool. Eligibility and study inclusion criteria were applied to the selected articles, which were classified based on year, research institute affiliations, and research topic. Results A total of 118 articles were retrieved and 51 articles were ultimately chosen for the bibliometric analysis. The number of publications on malaria has increased over time from 1987 to 2020. These articles were published in 32 different journals, the most represented being the Malaria Journal (13.73%) and the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (11.76%). The leading research topics were drug evaluation (52.94%), expatriate patients (23.54%), malaria in children (17.65%), morbidity (13.7%), and malaria during pregnancy (11.76%). The publications’ authors were mainly affiliated with the Institut Pasteur of Bangui (41%), the French Military Medical Service (15.5%), and the University of Bangui (11.7%). Collaborations were mostly established with France, the UK, and the USA; some collaborations involved Switzerland, Austria, Pakistan, Japan, Sri Lanka, Benin, Cameroun, Ivory Coast, and Madagascar. The main sources of research funding were French agencies (28.6%) and international agencies (18.3%). Most studies included were not representative of the whole country. The CAR has the capacity to carry out research on malaria and to ensure the necessary collaborations. Conclusion Malaria research activities in the CAR seem to reflect the priorities of national policy. One remaining challenge is to develop a more representative approach to better characterize malaria cases across the country. Finally, future research and control measures need to integrate the effect of COVID-19.

75 years’ journey of malaria publications in English: what and where?

“…Although a few bibliometric studies on malaria are reported, they were either restricted to a particular geography (Latin America [ 4 ]; China [ 5 , 6 ]; India [ 7 , 8 ]; Malawi [ 9 ]; Portugal [ 10 ]; Central African Republic [ 11 ]), a particular period or a specific context related to malaria (artemisinin [ 12 , 13 ]; malaria vaccines [ 14 ]; malaria in pregnancy [ 15 ]; malaria vector resistance [ 16 ]; anti-malarial drug resistance [ 17 ]; citations [ 18 , 19 ]) or to a wider term such as mosquito-borne disease [ 20 ] or parasitology [ 21 ]. There was only one article that analysed global research on malaria [ 22 ] but it was focused on Plasmodium vivax and the data were retrieved only from the Scopus ® .…”

75 years’ journey of malaria publications: what and where?

“…Although a few bibliometric studies have been performed on research related to malaria, ours is a first analysis of this kind as its targets global malaria bibliometric research through three different databases. Previously published bibliometric malaria-related research was either restricted to a particular geography (Latin America -Munoz-Urbano et al, 2014; China – Fu et al, 2015, Du et al, 2021; India – Singh and Mahanty, 2019, Gupta and Bala, 2011; Malawi – Mwendera et al, 2017; Portugal – Ferreira and Teixeira, 2019; Central African Republic - Nzoumbou-Boko et al, 2022), a particular period or a specific context related to malaria (artemisinin – Dong et al, 2022, Xu et al, 2018; Yao et al, 2012; malaria vaccines – Garg et al, 2009; malaria in pregnancy - van Eijk et al, 2012; malaria vector resistance – Sweileh et al, 2016; anti-malarial drug resistance - Sweileh et al, 2017; citations - Ghamgosar, Zarghani, and Nemati-Anaraki, 2021, Kolle, Vijayashree, and Shankarappa, 2017) or to a wider term such as mosquito-borne disease (Ong, Pauzi, and Gan, 2022) or parasitology (Ellis et al, 2020) or even COVID-19 (Mala et al, 2022). We could find only one article that analyzed global research on malaria (Garrido-Cardenas et al, 2019) but this article was focused on P. vivax and only from the Scopus database.…”

High prevalence of Plasmodium spp infections in Bangui, Central African Republic

“…7 per 1000 inhabitants at risk between 2017 and 2021, and the number of deaths also rose slightly from 1.04 to 1.05 per 1000 inhabitants for the same period, with the entire population (estimated at 6.09 million) at risk of malaria infection [4]. The burden of malaria in the CAR places the country 5 th among the most affected countries, after Benin, Burkina Faso, Libéria and Mali, and rst in Central Africa [5]. Over the past 20 years, a number of initiatives, including the introduction in 2005 of artemisininbased combination therapies as rst-line treatment for con rmed cases, the distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) since 2010, the introduction of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and homebased management of malaria (PECADOM) in 2013, and the introduction of integrated community case management (iCCM) and community health workers (CHW) programs, have been carried out in CAR, but gaps remain in the ght against the disease.…”