Abstract

Doc number: 16

Abstract: In 2007 Timor-Leste, a malaria endemic country, changed its Malaria Treatment Protocol for uncomplicated falciparum malaria from sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine to artemether-lumefantrine. The change in treatment policy was based on the rise in morbidity due to malaria and perception of increasing drug resistance. Despite a lack of nationally available evidence on drug resistance, the Ministry of Health decided to change the protocol. The policy process leading to this change was examined through a qualitative study on how the country developed its revised treatment protocol for malaria. This process involved many actors and was led by the Timor-Leste Ministry of Health and the WHO country office. This paper examines the challenges and opportunities identified during this period of treatment protocol change.

Details

Title
Changing the malaria treatment protocol policy in Timor-Leste: an examination of context, process, and actors' involvement
Author
Martins, João S; Zwi, Anthony B; Hobday, Karen; Bonaparte, Fernando; Kelly, Paul M
Pages
16
Publication year
2013
Publication date
2013
Publisher
BioMed Central
e-ISSN
14784505
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4505-11-16
ProQuest document ID
1357561314
Copyright
© 2013 Martins et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.