Malaria Control Project

Malaria Control is a volunteer distributed computing project. The project simulate the transmission dynamics and health effects of malaria. It is part of the Africa@home project.[3]

Malaria Control Project
Developer(s)Swiss Tropical Institute
Initial releaseDecember 19, 2006 (2006-12-19)[1]
Development statusInactive since 21 June 2016
Operating systemCross-platform
PlatformBOINC
Average performance12.155 TeraFLOPS (2014)[2]
Active users7,907 (2014)[2]
Total users200,749 (2014)[2]
Active hosts29,988(2014)[2]
Total hosts545,517 (2014)[2]
Websitewww.malariacontrol.net

History

The malariacontrol.net domain name was first registered on 19 May 2005 under Swiss Tropical Institute.[4] This project was under Africa@home where the latter was conceived and developed by European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Malariacontrol was the first project to use distributed computing to model diseases. The model simulates malaria infection in 50,000 to 100,000 people. Each work unit lasted for an hour in average personal computers and the results were returned to University of Geneva for evaluation by researchers.[3][5] Malariacontrol ran all the simulations by using stochastic simulation model.[6]

Since 4 November 2010, using the financial support from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,[7] Malariacontrol.net developed an open-source software named "Open Malaria" which can be used to simulate outcomes in various types of malaria transmission settings.[8]

On 21 June 2016, malariacontrol.net announced that the project has been terminated due to financial constraints in upgrading their servers for further volunteer computing operations.[9]

Impact

Over 10 years, malariacontrol.net has produced 30 peer-reviewed articles.[10]

In 2008, among the studies performed were the effectiveness of different types of Malaria vaccines in high and low malaria transmission settings,[11] effectiveness of Sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine in preventive treatment of malaria in infants,[12] and using individual-based stochastic simulations in Plasmodium falciparum control.[13]

In 2012, Malaria Control has studied the effectiveness of using RTS,S malaria vaccine in World Health Organization's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in different malarial transmission settings and reported that such programme only has modest benefits over 14 years period. The study suggested that the RTS,S vaccine should be used in targeted mass vaccination in low malarial transmission settings in order to get the most benefits out of it.[14]

In 2013, Malariacontrol had examined the effectiveness of Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) and other surveillance tools in detecting malaria infections among high and low Plasmodium falciparum transmissions.[15] The project also recommended that screening the whole human population for malaria before treating them would be more cost effective when compared to indiscriminate treatment of the whole population with antimalarial drugs.[16] Another study also revealed that both Pyrethroid-only mosquito nets and Piperonyl butoxide mosquito nets are cost effective in preventing malarial infections in both Pyrethroid-susceptible and Pyrethroid-resistant mosquitoes.[17]

Reception

As of 2010, malariacontrol.net had about 10,000 active users with 37,002 registered members. Similar to the general BOINC users, malariacontrol.net mainly had a volunteer base of males ranged from 20 to 50 years old, mostly staying in European countries and North America. Most of them learned about this project through BOINC website and their main motivation was the satisfaction of doing something good for the betterment of humankind.[18]

gollark: The UK appears to mostly be going for just *asking* people not to go out much right now, and obviously shutting schools.
gollark: That doesn't make it a good idea.
gollark: And after the panic-buying began there was, well, not much food available, so it made (makes?) *some* sense to buy some when it is.
gollark: There was a possibility (probably still is, and I imagine it's happened some places) of supply chains failing to get food to sale fast enough.
gollark: I don't think it's stupidity as much as possibly excessive self-interest causing panic buying.

References
  1. Maire (19 December 2016). "Migration to new server". malariacontrol.net. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  2. "Detailed stats - Malaria Control". BOINCstats. 15 October 2014. Archived from the original on 15 October 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  3. Lovgren, Stefan (8 August 2006). "Malaria Battlers Enlist Power of Your PC". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2 September 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  4. "Malariacontrol.net domain information". whois.com. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  5. Helen, Pearson (20 July 2006). "Wanted: computers for a humanitarian cause". Nature. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  6. "How does MalariaControl.net work?". Africa@home. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  7. Thomas, A Smith (20 April 2017). "Open Malaria". GitHub. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  8. "Open Malaria releases". GitHub. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  9. Maire (21 June 2016). "Status and plans as of June 2016". malariacontrol.net. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  10. "Publications by BOINC projects - malariacontrol.net". BOINC wiki. Archived from the original on 18 July 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  11. Melissa, A; Nicholas, Maire; Alain, Studer; Allan, Schapira; Thomas, A Smith (11 September 2008). "What Should Vaccine Developers Ask? Simulation of the Effectiveness of Malaria Vaccines". PLOS ONE. 3 (9): e3193. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003193. PMC 2527129. PMID 18784833.
  12. Amanda, Ross; Melissa, Penny; Nicholas, Maire; Alain, Studer; Ilona, Carneiro; David, Schellenberg; Brian, Greenwood; Marcel, Tanner; Thomas, Smith (16 July 2008). "Modelling the Epidemiological Impact of Intermittent Preventive Treatment against Malaria in Infants". PLOS ONE. 4 (3): e2661. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002661. PMC 2441827. PMID 18628828.
  13. Smith, T; et al. (11 August 2008). "Towards a comprehensive simulation model of malaria epidemiology and control" (PDF). Parasitology. 135 (13): 1507–1516. doi:10.1017/S0031182008000371. PMID 18694530.
  14. "Status update". malariacontrol.net. 23 March 2012. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  15. "Science update part I: till January 2013". malariacontrol.net. 26 July 2013. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  16. "Science update part II: till March 2013". malariacontrol.net. 30 July 2013. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  17. "Science update part III: till June 2013". malariacontrol.net. 30 July 2013. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  18. Krebs, Viola (1 February 2010). "Motivations of cybervolunteers in applied distributed computing environment: Malariacontrol.net as an example". First Monday. 15 (2). Retrieved 11 June 2017.
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