To define the nature and extent of influenza (and other respiratory pathogens) associated Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) amongst urban and rural high-risk adults and children in Malawi in an area with highly endemic malaria and a high HIV prevalence. In the context of circulating influenza viruses, this work will focus SARI amongst those children under 1 year old, pregnant mothers and HIV infected adults admitted with and without malaria to a large Central Hospital in urban Malawi (Blantyre) and a rural site (Chikhwawa). The proximity of a MLW research facility based in Cikhwawa with a high malaria burden to the main MLW laboratory in Blantyre, provides a unique opportunity to make comparisons between rural and urban, and high and low malaria endemic populations.
To define the nature and extent of influenza (and other respiratory pathogens) associated Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) amongst urban and rural high-risk adults and children in Malawi in an area with highly endemic malaria and a high HIV prevalence. In the context of circulating influenza viruses, this work will focus SARI amongst those children under 1 year old, pregnant mothers and HIV infected adults admitted with and without malaria to a large Central Hospital in urban Malawi (Blantyre) and a rural site (Chikhwawa). The proximity of a MLW research facility based in Cikhwawa with a high malaria burden to the main MLW laboratory in Blantyre, provides a unique opportunity to make comparisons between rural and urban, and high and low malaria endemic populations.
