Ten years ago, targeted attention to individual malaria cases was not happening. Back then, Zambia was demonstrating that by scaling up nationwide the proven tools to control malaria—bed nets, insecticides, diagnostics and drugs—a country could put a huge dent in the disease burden. Because of these efforts, malaria in children was cut in half.

The gains were encouraging, but Zambian authorities weren’t satisfied. To refine the attack on malaria, the Ministry of Health sought to better understand the situation on the ground and established a weekly malaria reporting system. Data from more than a 1/3 of the country’s health facilities—malaria cases and the number of test kits and treatment remaining on the shelf—are now fed into a national database.

Meanwhile, massive household campaigns revealed that a lot of malaria was being missed. In some communities, more than 80 percent of malaria cases lacked symptoms. While an individual may not look or feel sick, a mosquito can still suck up parasites during a blood meal and transmit them when she bites again later.

To combat this latent transmission, Zambia introduced mass drug administration: test everyone in an area, regardless of symptoms. It worked. Malaria fell dramatically in the study area: an 87 percent reduction including a 97 percent reduction in facility-reported deaths.

Now Zambia is taking another big step toward malaria elimination by using data analysis and community-based outreach to identify and attack the disease. Health workers testing in their communities meet every month at the local health facility to share data. After checking for quality, the data is submitted into the national system. Thanks to these efforts, Zambia has rich, near real-time data at all levels and can use that information to guide strategy. 

And as the country pushes toward malaria elimination, success has been marked by unwavering political commitment and steadfast collaboration from a range of partners at local to global levels. PATH, a global health non-profit based in Seattle, has been working in Zambia since 2005. Their primary focus is supporting the National Malaria Elimination Center, from data collection and management to research studies to engaging communities during routine and campaign malaria activities.

PATH is dedicated to innovation in public health, and that extends to initiatives such as Visualize No Malaria, a partnership with the Tableau Foundation. Along with a coalition of technology companies, including Twilio, PATH and the Tableau Foundation seek to make Zambia’s rich and growing base of data rapidly accessible and high quality for decision-makers and those on the frontline.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, a team at PATH identified data quality and analysis as key areas for action. The team implemented a Tableau Server to optimize reported data that was updated both weekly and monthly. Using native Tableau features such as data joins and blends, they were able to offer new insights on malaria case occurrences and trends. Through Tableau dashboards, a senior official at the Ministry of Health in the capital Lusaka could see what is taking place in districts, health facilities, and even the area where a community health worker operates. These visualizations offered a fresh perspective on the disease, but data gaps remained.