Village-based diagnosis and treatment of malaria

Village-based volunteer workers have played an important role in malaria diagnosis and treatment in many different settings for more than 35 years. Two of these programs stand out in terms of their size and longevity: the Volunteer Collaborator Network of Latin America and the Village Voluntary Malaria Collaborator Program of Thailand. The success of these programs is based on a tradition of active community participation and sustained commitment and support from the national malaria control programs. As epidemiological conditions and program priorities change, these programs will have to be sufficiently flexible to keep pace. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing these single disease, vertical programs in the future is their integration into the general health services in a manner that will preserve their best features.