ArticleBMC infectious diseases2016
Febrile illness diagnostics and the malaria-industrial complex: a socio-environmental perspective.
Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Forgotten in the tropics: research on Culex mosquitoes is overshadowed in malaria and dengue-endemic regions.Parasites & vectors · 2026Pooled it
- Increasing prevalence of malaria and acute dengue virus coinfection in Africa: a meta-analysis and meta-regression of cross-sectional studies.Malaria journal · 2023Pooled it
- Identifying populations with high prevalence of non-malarial febrile illnesses across different demographic groups in Malawi.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- Malaria and bacteremia in febrile children presenting at a teaching hospital in Kumasi, Ghana.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Coinfection of Malaria and Dengue Fever in Patients With Acute Undifferentiated Febrile Illnesses in Ghana: A Narrative Review.BioMed research international · 2026Review
- Epidemiology of malaria and leishmaniasis in Thailand (2004-2025): A systematic review.Current research in parasitology & vector-borne diseases · 2026Review
- Descriptive Epidemiology of Acute Febrile Illness Patients in Nigeria: Pathogens of Global Public Health Significance Detected Using a Multi-Pathogen Detection Tool.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2025Article
- Innovative approaches to vector control: integrating genomic, biological, and chemical strategies.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Review
- Dengue diagnosis and impact on clinical management: A literature review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Review
- Uncovering the viral aetiology of undiagnosed acute febrile illness in Uganda using metagenomic sequencing.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Treatment-Seeking for Children with Suspected Severe Malaria Attending Community Health Workers and Primary Health Centres in Adamawa State, Nigeria.International journal of public health · 2025Article
- Antibiotic prescribing patterns at outpatient clinics in Western and Coastal Kenya.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- COVID-19 in patients presenting with malaria-like symptoms at a primary healthcare facility in Accra, Ghana.PloS one · 2024Article
- Metagenomic surveillance uncovers diverse and novel viral taxa in febrile patients from Nigeria.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Adherence to 14-day radical cure for Plasmodium vivax malaria in Papua, Indonesia: a mixed-methods study.Malaria journal · 2023Article
- Spatiotemporal overlapping of dengue, chikungunya, and malaria infections in children in Kenya.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Malaria and typhoid fever among patients presenting with febrile illnesses in Ga West Municipality, Ghana.PloS one · 2023Article
- Arbovirus Epidemiology: The Mystery of Unnoticed Epidemics in Ghana, West Africa.Microorganisms · 2022Review
- Antimicrobial Stewardship in Tropical Infectious Diseases: Focusing on Dengue and Malaria.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2022Review
- Entomological risk of African tick-bite fever (Rickettsia africae infection) in Eswatini.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundGlobal prioritization of single-disease eradication programs over improvements to basic diagnostic capacity in the Global South have left the world unprepared for epidemics of chikungunya, Ebola, Zika, and whatever lies on the horizon. The medical establishment is slowly realizing that in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly urban areas, up to a third of patients suffering from acute fever do not receive a correct diagnosis of their infection. MAIN BODY: Malaria is the most common diagnosis for febrile patients in low-resource health care settings, and malaria misdiagnosis has soared due to the institutionalization of malaria as the primary febrile illness of SSA by international development organizations and national malaria control programs. This has inadvertently created a "malaria-industrial complex" and historically obstructed our complete understanding of the continent's complex communicable disease epidemiology, which is currently dominated by a mélange of undiagnosed febrile illnesses. We synthesize interdisciplinary literature from Ghana to highlight the complexity of communicable disease care in SSA from biomedical, social, and environmental perspectives, and suggest a way forward.
conclusionA socio-environmental approach to acute febrile illness etiology, diagnostics, and management would lead to substantial health gains in Africa, including more efficient malaria control. Such an approach would also improve global preparedness for future epidemics of emerging pathogens such as chikungunya, Ebola, and Zika, all of which originated in SSA with limited baseline understanding of their epidemiology despite clinical recognition of these viruses for many decades. Impending ACT resistance, new vaccine delays, and climate change all beckon our attention to proper diagnosis of fevers in order to maximize limited health care resources.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.