Quantifying and Valuing Community Health Worker Time in Improving Access to Malaria Diagnosis and Treatment

Joelle Castellani*, Borislava Mihaylova, IkeOluwapo O. Ajayi, Mohamadou Siribie, Jesca Nsungwa-Sabiiti, Chinenye Afonne, Luc Serme, Andrew Balyeku, Vanessa Kabarungi, Josephine Kyaligonza, Silvia M. A. A. Evers, Agnes Paulus, Max Petzold, Jan Singlovic, Melba Gomes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Background. Community health workers (CHWs) are members of a community who are chosen by their communities as first-line, volunteer health workers. The time they spend providing healthcare and the value of this time are often not evaluated. Our aim was to quantify the time CHWs spent on providing healthcare before and during the implementation of an integrated program of diagnosis and treatment of febrile illness in 3 African countries. Methods. In Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Uganda, CHWs were trained to assess and manage febrile patients in keeping with Integrated Management of Childhood Illness recommendations to use rapid diagnostic tests, artemisinin-based combination therapy, and rectal artesunate for malaria treatment. All CHWs provided healthcare only to young children usually
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)S298-S305
JournalClinical Infectious Diseases
Volume63
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 2016

Keywords

  • CHW
  • opportunity cost
  • workload
  • ACTs
  • RDTs

Cite this