9 research outputs found
Biodiversity conservation: history, protected areas and hotspots
Angola is a large country of great physiographic, climatic and habitat
diversity, with a corresponding richness in animal and plant species. Legally protected
areas (National Parks and Game Reserves) were established from the 1930s
and occupied 6% of the country’s terrestrial area at the time of independence in
1975. As a consequence of an extended war, the Protected Areas were exposed to
serious neglect, poaching and land invasions. Many habitats of biogeographic
importance, and many rare and endemic species came under threat. The recently
strengthened administration gives cause for optimism that a new era for biodiversity
conservation is at hand. The Protected Areas system was greatly expanded in 2011,
and increasing resources are being made available towards achieving management
effectivenessinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The 2013–2014 vegetation structure map of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, produced using free satellite images and software
Towards Habitat III: Confronting the disjuncture between global policy and local practice on Africa's ‘challenge of slums’
China in Africa: What challenges for a reforming European Union development policy? Illustrations from country cases
Modelling the cost-effectiveness of mass screening and treatment for reducing Plasmodium falciparum malaria burden
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Past experience and modelling suggest that, in most cases, mass treatment strategies are not likely to succeed in interrupting Plasmodium falciparum malaria transmission. However, this does not preclude their use to reduce disease burden. Mass screening and treatment (MSAT) is preferred to mass drug administration (MDA), as the latter involves massive over-use of drugs. This paper reports simulations of the incremental cost-effectiveness (ICER) of wellconducted MSAT campaigns as a strategy for P. falciparum malaria disease-burden reduction in settings with varying receptivity (ability of the combined vector population in a setting to transmit disease) and access to case management. METHODS: MSAT incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were estimated in different sub-Saharan African settings using simulation models of the dynamics of malaria and a literature-based MSAT cost estimate. Imported infections were simulated at a rate of two per 1,000 population per annum. These estimates were compared to the ICERs of scaling up case management or insecticide-treated net (ITN) coverage in each baseline health system, in the absence of MSAT. RESULTS: MSAT averted most episodes, and resulted in the lowest ICERs, in settings with a moderate level of disease burden. At a low pre-intervention entomological inoculation rate (EIR) of two infectious bites per adult per annum (IBPAPA) MSAT was never more cost-effective than scaling up ITNs or case management coverage. However at pre-intervention entomological inoculation rate (EIRs) of 20 and 50 IBPAPA and ITN coverage levels of 40 or 60%, respectively, the ICER of MSAT was similar to that of scaling up ITN coverage further. CONCLUSIONS: In all the transmission settings considered, achieving a minimal level of ITN coverage is a 'best buy'. At low transmission, MSAT probably is not worth considering. Instead, MSAT may be suitable at medium to high levels of transmission and at moderate ITN coverage. undertaken as a burden-reducing intervention, MSAT should be continued indefinitely and should complement, not replace, case management and vector control intervention