Mapping residual malaria transmission in Vietnam.

Background: Vietnam, as one of the countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion, has committed to eliminating all malaria by 2030. Declining case numbers highlight the country's progress, but challenges including imported cases and pockets of residual transmission remain. To successfully eliminate malaria and to prevent reintroduction of malaria transmission, geostatistical modelling of vulnerability (importation rate) and receptivity (quantified by the reproduction number) of malaria is critical.

Facilitators, barriers and acceptability of malaria reactive surveillance and response strategies in Vietnam: a mixed-methods study.

Introduction: Vietnam has achieved significant reductions in its malaria caseload over the past decades and is progressing towards malaria elimination. To achieve malaria elimination, the Vietnam Ministry of Health issued Guidelines for Malaria Surveillance and Prevention, a surveillance guide that describes malaria reactive surveillance and response (RASR) strategies-its implementation-is yet to be evaluated. Here, the facilitators, barriers and acceptability of the implementation of RASR strategies in Vietnam are explored and discussed thoroughly to provide recommendations for improvement of RASR strategies.

Performance and feasibility of reactive surveillance and response strategies for malaria elimination in Vietnam: a mixed-methods study.

Background: To enhance malaria elimination, Vietnam adopted a Reactive Surveillance and Response (RASR) Strategy in which malaria case notification and investigation must be completed within 2 days followed by a focus investigation within 7 days. The nationwide performance of Vietnam's RASR strategy has yet to be evaluated. This study aims to evaluate the performance and feasibility of RASR in Vietnam, thereby providing recommendations for improved RASR.

Challenges for achieving safe and effective radical cure of Plasmodium vivax: a round table discussion of the APMEN Vivax Working Group.

The delivery of safe and effective radical cure for Plasmodium vivax is one of the greatest challenges for achieving malaria elimination from the Asia-Pacific by 2030. During the annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network Vivax Working Group in October 2016, a round table discussion was held to discuss the programmatic issues hindering the widespread use of primaquine (PQ) radical cure. Participants included 73 representatives from 16 partner countries and 33 institutional partners and other research institutes.

Social determinants of long lasting insecticidal hammock use among the Ra-glai ethnic minority in Vietnam: implications for forest malaria control.

Background: Long-lasting insecticidal hammocks (LLIHs) are being evaluated as an additional malaria prevention tool in settings where standard control strategies have a limited impact. This is the case among the Ra-glai ethnic minority communities of Ninh Thuan, one of the forested and mountainous provinces of Central Vietnam where malaria morbidity persist due to the sylvatic nature of the main malaria vector An. dirus and the dependence of the population on the forest for subsistence--as is the case for many impoverished ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia.

Low perception of malaria risk among the Ra-glai ethnic minority in south-central Vietnam: implications for forest malaria control.

Background: Despite Vietnam's success in reducing malaria mortality and morbidity over the last decade, malaria persists in the forested and mountainous areas of the central and southern provinces, where more than 50% of the clinical cases and 90% of severe cases and malaria deaths occur.

Methods: Between July 2005 and September 2006, a multi-method study, triangulating a malariometric cross-sectional survey and qualitative data from focused ethnography, was carried out among the Ra-glai ethnic minority in the hilly forested areas of south-central Vietnam.

Results: Despite the relatively high malaria burden among the Ra-glai and their general awareness that mosquitoes can transmit an unspecific kind of fever (84.

Plasmodium knowlesi malaria in Vietnam: some clarifications.

A recently published comment on a report of Plasmodium knowlesi infections in Vietnam states that this may not accurately represent the situation in the study area because the PCR primers used may cross-hybridize with Plasmodium vivax. Nevertheless, P. knowlesi infections have been confirmed by sequencing.

Human Plasmodium knowlesi infections in young children in central Vietnam.

Background: Considering increasing reports on human infections by Plasmodium knowlesi in Southeast Asian countries, blood samples collected during two large cross-sectional malariometric surveys carried out in a forested area of central Vietnam in 2004 and 2005 were screened for this parasite.

Methods: Blood samples collected at the 2004 survey and positive for Plasmodium malariae were randomly selected for PCR analysis detecting P. knowlesi.

Epidemiology of forest malaria in central Vietnam: a large scale cross-sectional survey.

In Vietnam, a large proportion of all malaria cases and deaths occurs in the central mountainous and forested part of the country. Indeed, forest malaria, despite intensive control activities, is still a major problem which raises several questions about its dynamics.A large-scale malaria morbidity survey to measure malaria endemicity and identify important risk factors was carried out in 43 villages situated in a forested area of Ninh Thuan province, south central Vietnam.