VILLAGE-BASED DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF MALARIA

Village-based volunteer workers have played an important role in malar ia diagnosis and treatment in many different settings for more than 35 years. Two of these programs stand out in terms of their size and lon gevity: the Volunteer Collaborator Network of Latin America and the Vi llage Voluntary Malaria Collaborator Program of Thailand. The success of these programs is based on a tradition of active community particip ation and sustained commitment and support from the national malaria c ontrol programs. As epidemiological conditions and program priorities change, these programs will have to be sufficiently flexible to keep p ace. Perhaps the greatest challenge facing these single disease, verti cal programs in the future is their integration into the general healt h services in a manner that will preserve their best features.