Malaria exposure, emergency care and severe disease phenotypes in African children

Malaria still fills paediatric wards across Africa, but no one knows how changing infection rates and delays in reaching care shape which children develop life-threatening disease. This project addresses a critical gap: the relationship between a child’s cumulative exposure to malaria parasites and the severity of illness they present with at hospital. As mosquito control and better drugs reduce infections in some areas, the remaining cases may shift in type and severity—yet current surveillance systems cannot track this. The researcher will use a network of African hospitals to answer two questions: how severe malaria patterns differ across transmission settings, and what pathways families take from first symptoms to emergency care. If successful, the work could transform how hospitals are used—not just as treatment centres, but as early-warning instruments for community-level malaria control. It would help predict the real-world impact of new vaccines or bed nets, and identify where referral systems fail children most. The findings are directly actionable: they could guide health ministries on where to strengthen emergency transport, triage protocols, or community health worker training, without waiting for expensive population surveys.