The Monthly - October, 2024

PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT: Alta Verapaz, Guatemala

Improving malaria service delivery in remote indigenous communities

Famous for its lush rainforests and coffee production, Guatemala's Alta Verapaz is home to many Mayan communities whose roots pre-date Christopher Columbus.

Alta Verapaz is also known for being one of the most remote, hard-to-reach regions in Central America. According to Choice Humanitarian , "23% of the population live more than an hour away from any basic healthcare facility." The region is also plagued by personnel shortages: "The ratio of healthcare workers to civilians is 12.5 to 10,000, well below the recommended international density threshold of 44.5 to 10,000 individuals," per Choice Humanitarian.

In 2020, these access challenges were exacerbated by hurricanes Eta And Iota , which caused flooding, landslides, and severe mudflows throughout the region (see bottom-left image above). Flood planes left by these storms created ideal breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes. Alta Verapaz is one of the last malaria hotspots in Guatemala, which has made remarkable progress against the disease (from 7,384 reported cases in 2010 to 1,058 in 2020 ). However, the two hurricanes and COVID-19 complications contributed to a resurgence of malaria in Guatemala (1,856 reported cases in 2022 ).

To get back on track towards malaria elimination, Guatemala and its private-sector partners are working to expand malaria testing, treatment, prevention, and education programs; and much of this work is carried out by community health workers (CHWs). In remote areas like Alta Verapaz, CHWs are often the frontline of defense against malaria and other diseases. They also play a vital role in collecting patient data that helps the government monitor the spread of malaria and better anticipate potential outbreaks.

United to Beat Malaria is pleased to play a role in helping strengthen malaria and other vital health services in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Working with our partners, we've helped train and deploy 159 community health workers who go door-to-door delivering malaria and other vital health services in the region. We're also supporting efforts to make malaria service delivery more ecient and data-driven by geopmapping health care services and surveying health workers across Alta Verapaz. These analyses will help identify service gaps and inform the development of a more community-tailored package of malaria and other health interventions.

Next week, we will commemorate Malaria Day in the Americas (November 6) by celebrating countries like Guatemala that have made historic gains against malaria and remain committed to reaching elimination. Please consider supporting our work in Guatemala. To make a donation, go to bit.ly/BeatMalariaGuatemala.

GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT: Introducing the 'Next Chapter of Progress'

New series highlights wave of Africa-driven innovation to beat malaria

What does progress look like in the fight against malaria? Recent years have shown that the path to eradication won’t be linear. After achieving historic gains from 2000 to 2015, progress against malaria has since stagnated due to drug and insecticide resistance, climate change, financing gaps, and other threats.

And yet, there are so many reasons to feel optimistic about the future of the malaria fight. We’re seeing an unprecedented wave of innovation and local-global collaboration in this space in recent years. New vaccines, next-generation bed nets and drugs, and a host of other new malaria tools and strategies are reaching millions of people across Africa, which carries 96% of the global malaria burden. And much of the infrastructure driving these innovations is being built sustainably in Africa – from R&D and manufacturing to local delivery and implementation.

Our new StoryMap showcases over 50 Africa-driven partnerships driving sustainable progress towards malaria elimination. The StoryMap highlights a wide range of local-global collaborations under four categories: research and development, manufacturing and supply chain, planning and implementation, and community engagement and action. We look forward to sharing this StoryMap with key decision makers, technical experts, and media outlets; and we will continue to add new stories to this evergreen map.

Would you like to feature this StoryMap on your website or media outlet? Do you have a suggestion for a new partnership to be featured in this StoryMap? Please contact Emile Dawisha ([email protected] ), Senior Communications Officer at United to Beat Malaria, with any media requests or feedback.

Please share this StoryMap on social media! Our toolkit includes suggested social media language and a downloadable graphic for seamless re-sharing on your platforms.