Prevalence of Malaria Parasites in People Working in Illegal Gold Mining in French Guiana
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Enrollment
- 421
- Primary Endpoint
- prevalence of malaria positive individuals (symptomatic or not symptomatic)
Study Overview
Brief Summary
Malaria is the most widespread parasitic illness in the world, and it is endemic to Guiana. Although the number of cases has decreased since 2005, sources of infection still remain, particularly within illegal gold mines. These malaria carriers/sufferers often use self-medication to deal with malaria symptoms, resulting in a risk of resistance to anti-malarial treatments, and particularly to artemisinine. The mobility of this population across the Guiana Shield increases both the risk of malaria spreading and the resistance of this illness to treatment in the region, and puts the population at risk of new outbreaks of this disease despite the great efforts put into anti-malarial policy in this region.
Fighting malaria within this population is therefore a dual public health challenge: on the one hand, make it possible for the WHO to eliminate malaria from the Guiana Shield by 2017, on the other to limit resistance to artemisinine in this region. However, Guiana's particular context - namely the illegal status of gold mines and the difficult geographical access, the Harpie military operations, the illegality of carrying out malarial diagnosis tests and treating cases without the presence of a health professional - prevents us from achieving this goal using the same tools as our neighbours in Suriname, whose " Looking for Gold, Finding Malaria " programme was a success.
A better understanding of the malarial epidemiology in this population will enable us to propose innovative, more adapted measures to combat malaria within these guyanese populations. This is an transversal, multicentric observational study.
Detailed Description
Main Aim:
To estimate the prevalence of Plasmodium carriers in the population of illegal gold mine workers in French Guiana.
Secondary aims:
Evaluate the proportion of different Plasmodium species affecting this population and
- Determine parasitaemia levels;
- Evaluate the gametocyte index;
- Map the number and proportion of P. falciparum cases for the different river sites where gold mining is carried out;
- Determine the lifestyle, knowledge, attitude and behaviour of these populations concerning malaria;
- Estimate the prevalence of mutations linked to the resistance of parasites to artemisinine derivatives;
- Analyse the global genetic diversity of these parasites.
- Evaluate the global health of gold miners
Study Design
- Study Type
- Observational
- Observational Model
- Case Crossover
- Time Perspective
- Cross Sectional
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •works on a gold mining site in French Guiana
- •has been at the resting site for less than seven days
- •is over the age of 18
- •accepts to take part in this study
Exclusion Criteria
- •refuses to take part in the study
- •is under the age of 18
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
prevalence of malaria positive individuals (symptomatic or not symptomatic)
Time Frame: 1 month
every participant gives a capillary blood specimen which is then screened for malaria using PCR in order to obtain a prevalence of malaria positive individuals (symptomatic or not symptomatic)
Secondary Outcomes
- Microscopy: thick and thin smear(1 month)