{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,15]],"date-time":"2026-03-15T23:25:07Z","timestamp":1773617107991,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":9,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]],"date-time":"2020-11-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1604275200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]],"date-time":"2020-11-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1604275200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Malar J"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n              <jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on other health programmes in countries, including on malaria, and is currently under much discussion. As many countries are accelerating efforts to eliminate malaria or to prevent the re-establishment of malaria from recently eliminated countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to cause major interruptions to ongoing anti-malaria operations and risk jeopardizing the gains that have been made so far. Sri Lanka, having eliminated malaria in 2012, was certified by the World Health Organization as a malaria-free country in 2016 and now implements a rigorous programme to prevent its re-establishment owing to the high receptivity and vulnerability of the country to malaria. Sri Lanka has also dealt with the COVID-19 epidemic quite successfully limiting the cumulative number of infections and deaths through co-ordinated efforts between the health sector and other relevant sectors, namely the military, the Police Department, Departments of Airport and Aviation and Foreign Affairs, all of which have been deployed for the COVID-19 epidemic under the umbrella of a Presidential Task Force. The relevance of imported infections and the need for a multi-sectoral response are features common to both the control of the COVID-19 epidemic and the Prevention of Re-establishment (POR) programme for malaria. Sri Lanka\u2019s malaria POR programme has, therefore, creatively integrated its activities with those of the COVID-19 control programme. Through highly coordinated operations the return to the country of Sri Lankan nationals stranded overseas by the COVID-19 pandemic, many from malaria endemic countries, are being monitored for malaria as well as COVID-19 in an integrated case surveillance system under quarantine conditions, to the success of both programmes. Twenty-three imported malaria cases were detected from February to October through 2773 microscopic blood examinations performed for malaria in quarantine centres, this number being not much different to the incidence of imported malaria during the same period last year. This experience highlights the importance of integrated case surveillance and the need for a highly coordinated multi-sectoral approach in dealing with emerging new infections. It also suggests that synergies between the COVID-19 epidemic control programme and other health programmes may be found and developed to the advantage of both.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12936-020-03465-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]],"date-time":"2020-11-02T16:03:41Z","timestamp":1604333021000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":23,"title":["Preventing the re-establishment of malaria in Sri Lanka amidst the COVID-19 pandemic"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Prasad","family":"Ranaweera","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rajitha","family":"Wickremasinghe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4177-1851","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kamini","family":"Mendis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"3465_CR1","unstructured":"WHO. The potential impact of health service disruptions on the burden of malaria. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2020. \n                  https:\/\/www.who.int\/publications\/i\/item\/the-potential-impact-of-health-service-disruptions-on-the-burden-of-malaria\n                  \n                . Accessed 12 Aug 2020."},{"key":"3465_CR2","unstructured":"The Global Fund. Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on countries affected by HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. 2020."},{"key":"3465_CR3","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.theglobalfund.org\/media\/9819\/covid19_mitigatingimpact_report_en.pdf\n                  \n                . Accessed 27 Aug 2020."},{"key":"3465_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1186\/s12936-015-0697-0","volume":"14","author":"P Dharmawardena","year":"2015","unstructured":"Dharmawardena P, Premaratne R, Gunasekera W, Hewawitarane M, Mendis K, Fernando D. Characterization of imported malaria, the largest threat to sustained malaria elimination from Sri Lanka. Malar J. 2015;14:177.","journal-title":"Malar J"},{"key":"3465_CR5","first-page":"7","volume":"573","author":"K Mendis","year":"2019","unstructured":"Mendis K. Eliminating malaria should not be the end of vigilance. Nat World View. 2019;573:7.","journal-title":"Nat World View"},{"key":"3465_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"210","DOI":"10.1186\/s12936-019-2843-6","volume":"18","author":"VM Karunasena","year":"2019","unstructured":"Karunasena VM, Marasinghe M, Amarasinghe S, Koo C, Senaratne PAS, Hasantha MBR, et al. The first introduced malaria case reported from Sri Lanka after elimination: implications for preventing the re-introduction of malaria in recently eliminated countries. Malar J. 2019;18:210.","journal-title":"Malar J"},{"key":"3465_CR7","unstructured":"Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services, Sri Lanka. Corona virus 2020. Corona virus disease, situation report. Epidemiology Unit. \n                  https:\/\/www.epid.gov.lk\/web\/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=225&Itemid=518&lang=en\n                  \n                . DateL August 2020. Accessed 27 Aug 2020"},{"key":"3465_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"144","DOI":"10.1186\/s12936-016-1204-y","volume":"15","author":"S Fernando","year":"2016","unstructured":"Fernando S, Dharmawardana P, Semege S, Epasinghe G, Senanayake N, Rodrigo C, et al. The risk of imported malaria in security forces personnel returning from overseas missions in the context of prevention of re-introduction of malaria to Sri Lanka. Malar J. 2016;15:144.","journal-title":"Malar J"},{"key":"3465_CR9","first-page":"19","volume":"4","author":"SD Fernando","year":"2017","unstructured":"Fernando SD, Booso R, Dharmawardena P, Harintheran AA, Raviraj K, Rodrigo C, et al. The need for preventive and curative services for malaria when military is deployed in endemic overseas territories: a case study and lessons learnt. Mil Med Res. 2017;4:19.","journal-title":"Mil Med Res"}],"container-title":["Malaria Journal"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/s12936-020-03465-5.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/s12936-020-03465-5\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/s12936-020-03465-5.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,3]],"date-time":"2020-11-03T02:02:44Z","timestamp":1604368964000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/malariajournal.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12936-020-03465-5"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]]},"references-count":9,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12]]}},"alternative-id":["3465"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s12936-020-03465-5","relation":{},"ISSN":["1475-2875"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1475-2875","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,2]]},"assertion":[{"value":"23 September 2020","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"26 October 2020","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"2 November 2020","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"386"}}