Application of an innovative grid-based surveillance strategy to ensure elimination and prevent reintroduction of malaria in high-risk border communities in China.

Lu, Shen-Ning; Ding, Wei; Wang, Jia-Zhi; Yin, Shou-Qin; Li, Sheng-Guo; Zhou, Xing-Wu; Xu, Qiu-Li; Sun, Xiao-Dong; Cotter, Chris; Hsiang, Michelle S; +4 more... Tatarsky, Allison; Gosling, Roly; Lv, Shan; Wang, Duo-Quan; (2022) Application of an innovative grid-based surveillance strategy to ensure elimination and prevent reintroduction of malaria in high-risk border communities in China. BMC public health, 22 (1). 1347-. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13753-1

Abstract

Grid management is a grassroots governance strategy widely implemented in China since 2004 to improve the government's efficiency to actively find and solve problems among populated regions. A grid-based strategy surveillancing high-risk groups, including mobile and migrant populations (MMPs), in the China-Myanmar border region has played an indispensable role in promoting and consolidating the malaria elimination efforts by tracking and timely identification of potential importation or re-establishment of malaria among MMPs. A sequential mixed methods was implementated to explore the operational mechanism and best practices of the grid-based strategy including through the focus group discussions (FGDs), comparison of before and after the implementation of a grid-based strategy in the field sites, and data collection from the local health system.This paper distills the implementation mechanism and highlights the role of the grid-based strategy in the elimination and prevention of re-establishment of malaria transmission.