ArticleThe Journal of infection2024
Burden of child mortality from malaria in high endemic areas: Results from the CHAMPS network using minimally invasive tissue sampling.
Article in The Journal of infection, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Validation of malaria-attributed deaths using verbal autopsy studies: a systematic review.Malaria journal · 2024Pooled it
- Egg supplementation for 24 weeks does not improve linear growth or reduce small intestinal permeability in Sierra Leonean children with moderate wasting: a randomized, blinded, controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Trial
- Mass Administration of Azithromycin to Infants in Mali to Reduce Mortality.The New England journal of medicine · 2025Trial
- Targeted pneumococcal conjugate vaccination strategies for high-risk children.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Review
- Causes of Death Among Stillbirths and Children Aged <5 Years in Africa and South Asia - Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance, Seven Countries, 2016-2024.Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Surveillance summaries (Washington, D.C. : 2002) · 2026Article
- Malaria prevalence and epidemiological characteristics in Northern Malawi: a nine-year retrospective hospital-based study.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- Malaria microscopy evaluation and quality assurance in rural clinics of Rarieda and Alego Usonga sub-counties of Siaya County, western Kenya.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- Investigating the Role of Cytomegalovirus as a Cause of Stillbirths and Child Deaths in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Through Postmortem Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- Comparison of verbal autopsy using a large language model to biologically confirmed causes of death for malaria and other communicable diseases among children in six sub-Saharan African countries.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- Estimating rates of treatment delay for malaria fevers among children in Sub-Saharan Africa 2006-2022.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Diagnostic accuracy of a simplified minimally invasive tissue sampling protocol for stillbirths in low-resource settings.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Black Phosphorous-Based Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor for Malaria Diagnosis.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mapping the global prevalence, incidence, and mortality of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax malaria, 2000-22: a spatial and temporal modelling study.Lancet (London, England) · 2025Article
- Use of minimally invasive tissue sampling to determine the contribution of diarrheal diseases to under-five mortality and associated co-morbidities and co-infections in children with fatal diarrheal diseases in Africa and Bangladesh.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Contribution of malnutrition to infant and child deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.BMJ global health · 2024Article
- Etiologies and comorbidities of meningitis deaths in children under 5 years in high-mortality settings: Insights from the CHAMPS Network in the post-pneumococcal vaccine era.The Journal of infection · 2024Observational
- Article
- Intermittent Preventive Treatment of Malaria in Pregnancy and the Impact on Neonates in African Countries as Assessed by Entropy Weight and TOPSIS Methods.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Determinants of Knowledge of Malaria Prevention Among Women of Reproductive Age 15-49 Years in Nigeria.Nigerian medical journal : journal of the Nigeria Medical AssociationReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
40 authors at 17 institutions in 11 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMalaria is a leading cause of childhood mortality worldwide. However, accurate estimates of malaria prevalence and causality among patients who die at the country level are lacking due to the limited specificity of diagnostic tools used to attribute etiologies. Accurate estimates are crucial for prioritizing interventions and resources aimed at reducing malaria-related mortality.
methodsSeven Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Network sites collected comprehensive data on stillbirths and children <5 years, using minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS). A DeCoDe (Determination of Cause of Death) panel employed standardized protocols for assigning underlying, intermediate, and immediate causes of death, integrating sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory (including extensive microbiology, histopathology, and malaria testing), and verbal autopsy data. Analyses were conducted to ascertain the strength of evidence for cause of death (CoD), describe factors associated with malaria-related deaths, estimate malaria-specific mortality, and assess the proportion of preventable deaths.
findingsBetween December 3, 2016, and December 31, 2022, 2673 deaths underwent MITS and had a CoD attributed from four CHAMPS sites with at least 1 malaria-attributed death. No malaria-attributable deaths were documented among 891 stillbirths or 924 neonatal deaths, therefore this analysis concentrates on the remaining 858 deaths among children aged 1-59 months. Malaria was in the causal chain for 42.9% (126/294) of deaths from Sierra Leone, 31.4% (96/306) in Kenya, 18.2% (36/198) in Mozambique, 6.7% (4/60) in Mali, and 0.3% (1/292) in South Africa. Compared to non-malaria related deaths, malaria-related deaths skewed towards older infants and children (p < 0.001), with 71.0% among ages 12-59 months. Malaria was the sole infecting pathogen in 184 (70.2%) of malaria-attributed deaths, whereas bacterial and viral co-infections were identified in the causal pathway in 24·0% and 12.2% of cases, respectively. Malnutrition was found at a similar level in the causal pathway of both malaria (26.7%) and non-malaria (30.7%, p = 0.256) deaths. Less than two-thirds (164/262; 62.6%) of malaria deaths had received antimalarials prior to death. Nearly all (98·9%) malaria-related deaths were deemed preventable.
interpretationMalaria remains a significant cause of childhood mortality in the CHAMPS malaria-endemic sites. The high bacterial co-infection prevalence among malaria deaths underscores the potential benefits of antibiotics for severe malaria patients. Compared to non-malaria deaths, many of malaria-attributed deaths are preventable through accessible malaria control measures.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.