Mass Drug Administration of Monthly DHA-PQP to Accelerate Towards Malaria Elimination in Magude District, Southern Mozambique

This study aims to deliver two yearly consecutive rounds of community wide MDA using DHA-PQP (full treatment, 3 days, only supervised as DOT on day 0) at months 1 and 2, combined with parasite prevalence surveys using RDTs and PCR.

The first RDT survey (conducted to the entire study population of 60,000 inhabitants before each individual's dose of MDA1) would provide a precise estimate of RDT measurable P. falciparum baseline prevalence. During this first round of MDA, full blood will also be collected in filter papers for all individuals for PCR evaluation to investigate PCR-based parasite prevalence in the community. During the second MDA round, blood will be collected in filter papers in a subsample of the study population for screening of PCR-based parasite prevalence in the community and among first-trimester pregnant women.

Effectiveness of the MDA rounds will be measured throughout a 12-month period.

During the first six months, impact will be measured based on RDT positivity and PCR positivity measured on month 1 (baseline; both methods) and subsequently (month 2, only PCR; month 6, both RDT and PCR); and on malaria incidence in the community measured through passive case detection (PCD) in the different health posts. The success of the two rounds of MDA, as measured by: a) Prevalence of malaria infection (by RDT and/or PCR) in a subgroup of the study population on month six; b) Incidence of malaria as detected through PCD (from months 1 to 6); c) Identification of hotspots of maintained transmission in the study area; or d) Coverage achieved of MDA1 and MDA2 rounds). Should the two rounds not achieve the predefined success milestones [1. Decrease in parasite prevalence by 90% by RDT and/or PCR; 2) Coverage of 80% or above for both rounds; 3) Absence of clear geographic hotspots and 4) Incidence of clinical malaria in the community<1% i.e <600 cases/year] a two more round of MDA (or a more targeted focal MDA) in the totality or a part of Magude district will be organized, starting on month 7.

DHA/PQP has been chosen as the drug of choice for MDA. The pharmacokinetic profile of piperaquine - the long half-life component drug in DHA-PQP - confers a minimum of a 1-month post-treatment prophylaxis effect. If administered monthly (for 3 days at a time) with a 4 weeks interval, the prophylactic effect could protect individuals from pre-treatment Plasmodium infected mosquitoes as well as from mosquitoes infected after mass treatment from residual circulating gametocytes. Mosquitoes live for a maximum of 28 days during which they return to feed from humans. During this period the population of pre-treatment infected mosquitoes will gradually die away, exhausting the mosquito reservoir of infection.