Cameroon is among the 10 African countries with the highest malaria cases, but diagnosis and treatment remain poor. Since 2017, armed violence in the Northwest and Southwest regions has led to the displacement of over 700,000 people and the closure of over 35 percent of health facilities. As a result, many internally displaced persons (IDPs) are unable to access essential health services, including malaria prevention and treatment.
Malaria Consortium is supporting on a project led by Reach Out Cameroon, to develop and evaluate context-specific, community-based interventions to improve access to effective malaria case management services for IDPs and host communities in the Southwest and Littoral regions. The project aims to understand key barriers to effective malaria case management and service uptake, as well as design innovative community engagement interventions to strengthen malaria prevention and control, and improve quality of malaria care and assess the feasibility and acceptability of the interventions, evaluating their impact on the coverage of effective malaria services. Malaria Consortium will support through a mixed-methods formative research phase, examining perceptions and healthcare-seeking behaviours, as well as key barriers to early malaria diagnosis, quality treatment, effective referrals and vector control interventions for IDPs. We will also liaise regularly with the NMCP, providing CHWs with refresher trainings on malaria community case management and facilitate bi-monthly supervision and mentoring by Ministry of Health staff