Results of health and literacy intervention published in PLoS Med

School-based intermittent screening and treatment programmes for malaria may be unsuccessful in low to moderate transmission areas, according to the Health and Literacy Intervention (HALI) findings published today in PLoS Medicine.

The cluster-randomised trial included over 5000 children from 101 primary schools in the South Coast of Kenya and followed them for 24 months to evaluate whether intermittent screening and treatment (IST) had any effect on children's health and education. The study was led by Katherine Halliday, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Prof. Simon Brooker of GAHI.

In contrast to the beneficial impact of previous school-based malaria control, HALI findings show there are no health or education benefits of implementing school-based IST programs in a low to moderate transmission setting such as the South Coast of Kenya. Nevertheless, the results highlight a potential role for schools as screening platforms whereby pockets of high transmission can be identified for targeted malaria control.

To read the paper, please visit PLoS Medicine.

To read about dissemination activities for policymakers and community stakeholders, please read Katherine's blog post. 

To read a commentary on the findings, please visit PLoS Medicine. 

To read a summary of our findings and policy implications in our HALI research brief.

HALI was funded by grants from the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, the Partnership for Child Development, and the Development Impact Evaluation Initiative as part of the Malaria Impact Evaluation Program of the World Bank. Additional support was provided by the Wellcome Trust.