Ivanhoe Mines and has announced the expansion of the ‘Know for Sure’ campaign, a groundbreaking initiative sponsored by Ivanhoe and Zijin Mining to help control malaria in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The project uses mobile smart devices called Deki Readers to help health workers more accurately conduct and analyse tests to diagnose malaria, while providing quality, actionable data to the DRC national Ministry of Health through an online healthcare management portal.

The expansion will support a 370% increase in the total number of health facilities using Deki Readers, from 54 to 254, by the end of this year. The programme is being conducted in the provinces of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba – two malaria-burdened regions that also host Ivanhoe’s Kipushi project and the Ivanhoe-Zijin joint venture Kamoa-Kakula project.

Since its launch in August 2015, the ‘Know for Sure’ campaign has demonstrated its capability to strengthen the DRC government’s capacity to rapidly and reliably confirm whether patients seeking care have malaria, while at the same time gathering a wealth of new information for the Health Ministry.

Of the 16,962 patients tested up until November 21, 2016, 49% reported negative for malaria, thus saving unnecessary presumptive treatment. Results also revealed that 60% of children aged under five, with fever, were positive for malaria – a critical finding that has been shared with the government through the online healthcare management portal.

Fio Corp, of Toronto, Canada, is providing the technology and Chemonics International, a Washington, US-based international development company, is providing in-field training, service and support.

Dr Ghislain Makan, a provincial coordinator with the DRC’s National Malaria Control Programme, said: “Programme funding from Ivanhoe and Zijin has enabled Fio Corp to install advanced technology right in the communities and generate and deliver critical data that we were not previously able to access. Now we have essential tools that empower us to take the human error out of the testing process and gain access to more reliable records in real time.”

Despite a significant decrease in the incidence of malaria in recent years, the World Health Organisation reports that the DRC still accounts for the second-highest number of estimated malaria deaths globally. The disease is responsible for 19% of deaths among children under five in the DRC. However, malaria can be successfully treated when detected early and accurately.

For the first time, DRC Health Ministry staff are able to remotely monitor, in real time, whether healthcare workers in the field are following testing and treatment protocols. Managers also may view reports on commodity stock, bed-net distribution and test results.

In addition to building government detection and treatment capacities, the ‘Know for Sure’ campaign is giving Ivanhoe Mines a better understanding of how malaria impacts its employees, their families and other residents in communities near Ivanhoe’s two major DRC projects in the Kipushi Health Zone, in Haut-Katanga Province, and the Kanzenze Health Zone in Lualaba Province.

Dr Guy Muswil, Ivanhoe’s corporate social investment manager in the DRC, said: “The success of the ‘Know For Sure’ initiative is a tribute to the cooperation between the government and the private sector, working together in everybody’s interest to end malaria. We invite other interested partners to join the campaign and help us to build on our early achievements. Joining forces is the only way to overcome the shared burden of malaria.”

Some of the ‘Know for Sure’ initiative’s achievements so far include: 

• 540 healthcare workers have been trained on the use of Deki Readers, with a total of 660 to be trained by the end of 2016;
• 30 DRC government officials have been trained on the online healthcare management portal to improve data-driven decision-making;
• 15 local ‘master trainers’ have been trained to support local healthcare workers on the use of Deki Readers; and
• From January 2016 to date, malaria has been detected in just under half of all cases analysed with the diagnostic test readers; however, the positivity rate for patients under the age of five has been 60%.

Elana Hazghia, strategic partnerships manager at Fio Corp, commented: “Fio’s technology is delivering timely, actionable insights to stakeholders in the DRC. By adopting this technology, the DRC government is positioning itself as a leader in advancing new technologies for evidence-based malaria control. We look forward to continuing our work with the ‘Know for Sure’ campaign partners.”