September 21, 2026
Estimating ITN Coverage in Africa: Methods, Trends, and Applications with Adam Saddler
Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) remain the cornerstone of malaria prevention, and estimates of ITN coverage are a key input to models of malaria burden. ITN coverage increased dramatically across sub-Saharan Africa between 2000 and 2015 but has largely plateaued since 2016. Ongoing funding uncertainties further threaten progress, increasing the need for countries to prioritise where and how ITNs are distributed. In this presentation, I will provide a brief history of how ITN coverage has been estimated at the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP). I will discuss how these estimates are used in malaria burden modelling and explore their application in strategic analyses to support malaria control planning and decision-making.
Current and future challenges in insecticide-treated nets (ITN) modelling with Eugene Tan
Since their rapid uptake two decades ago, insecticide-treated nets have become a mainstay intervention in the fight against malaria. Their current widespread adoption and projected usage going forward has highlighted modelling of ITN coverage and effects as an important tool in identifying trends in disease burden, and planning of policy and national programs. However, recent changes in the epidemiological and disease landscape such as insecticide resistance, heterogeneous data quality, and plurality of net types among others present multiple new challenges that need to be address. In this talk, I will discuss several of these challenges pertaining to model interpretability and ITN efficacy, and present new modelling innovations to tackle them.