WHO Guidelines for the Treatment of Malaria include the use of rectal artesunate (RAS) for pre-referral intervention for severe malaria. As National Malaria Programmes across Africa begin to introduce RAS in their malaria management strategy, it is important that healthcare providers (mainly community health workers), posted in remote rural community settings understand how to administer the product. MMV has developed training materials to illustrate step-by-step the correct use of RAS.
MMV worked in collaboration with a research agency in public health to interview health workers in Malawi and Senegal to evaluate ease of user understanding of the materials. Revised versions that incorporated lessons learned were tested daily over two weeks, to ensure that the final training materials meet the needs of health personnel who are often the first point of contact in the healthcare system for patients with severe malaria. This project was carried out with continuous feedback from WHO GMP, Save the Children, IFRC, MSF and Malaria Consortium.
View a poster presentation, explaining how the tool kit was developed.
We welcome feedback from local agencies, community health workers and other users on this tool kit. Please contact us with your comments.
Training material / Tool kit:
Research Lead: Wellsense