Page 45 - The lraternational Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand.indd

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XV-2023

thus encourage participants with febrile illness to continue to attend village malaria
workers. Patients were tested by novel rapid diagnostic tests (dengue and C-reactive
protein rapid tests [RDTs]) in addition to their standard malaria tests. VMWs were
trained to conduct a package of activities 1. disease surveillance; 2. management of
mild common illnesses 3. hygiene and sanitation & 4. Expanded Program on

Immunization (EPI) and antenatal care (ANC); that they carried out alongside their
traditional job of treating malaria. In the same villages we conducted a project for the
South and the Southeast Asia Community-based Trials Network entitled “Incidences,

Causes, and Outcomes of Febrile Illness in Rural South and Southeast Asia” (SEACTN-WP-A)
(ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04478578) with support from the Wellcome Trust,
UK (Chandna et al, 2021).

The Battambang and Pailin provinces study sites
New field sites were established in Pailin and Battambang provinces in western

Cambodia to conduct this work in approximately 82 villages and 9 health centres and
involving the training of approximately 120 village malaria workers (Figure 1).

Figure 1 A map of the villages and health centres participating in a Global Fund supported project
in western Cambodia. The large study area requires supervision and during COVID-19 lockdowns
novel approaches to monitoring work were adopted.

Dysoley Lek et al. 37