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MARA LITe Information |
The MARA LITe was first released on a CD-ROM in 2002.
Updates to the CD can be downloaded from the Updates page.
The contents of the CD have now been made available for downloading on the Download page.
A MARA LITe slide show
For a brief overview of MARA LITe please click here.
A more detailed, inter-active slide show, which gives a full overview of the functionality and application of MARA LITe, can be downloaded from Other Resources on the MARA LITe download page.
The MARA LITe software has three major modules:
1. Prevalence data
2. Maps
3. Population data
The prevalence data represent results from malaria prevalence surveys (carried out by different researchers, at different times and locations) that have been collated into one single database by the MARA/ARMA project. Only confirmed blood test results from sub-Saharan Africa were included. The earliest studies are from the beginning of the 20th century. Details on sample size, month of survey, sampling methods, diagnostic methods etc were captured, as far as this information was available. For more details see the Prevalence data and Data collection sections in the MARA/ARMA technical report.
The Prevalence data module has three sub-modules:
a) Bibliography
Details on the sources of published and
unpublished data included in the database.
b) Database query
Find out what data are available
and calculate mean prevalence for your region of interest.
c) Prevalence survey design
Use MARA/ARMA data as baseline to design pre- and post- intervention prevalence surveys.
Please note that certain aspects of the data have not been fully checked, eg mismatches between administrative unit names in the database and in the maps.
This module provides maps of currently available MARA/ARMA products:
a) Spatial-statistical malaria prevalence models
b) Seasonality of malaria
(i) First and last month of the transmission season(s)
(ii) Duration of the season
(iii) Middle of the transmission season
c) Distribution of endemic
malaria
d) Risk of epidemic malaria in the East African Highlands (HIMAL project)
e) Maps of products from other sources
(i) Population distribution
(ii) Reference maps
Topographical maps, altitude,
rainfall, etc
For a full list of maps by Region and Theme click here.
Maps are launched in MapInfo ProViewer, which is a freeware runtime version of MapInfo.
This module provides estimates of
a)
Total population per administrative unit
A continental population distribution map is combined
with administrative boundaries
Calculated totals are projected to the required year using
annual population growth figures
b) Populations at risk of malaria
The population map is combined with models of malaria
distribution
The number of people at different levels of risk are
summarised by administrative unit
Quality of population estimates
are limited by the accuracy of underlying data:
Population distribution model
Annual population growth figures by country
Malaria distribution models
The climate and other data used to produce the malaria models
Geographical accuracy of the administrative boundaries
1. Documents
a) MARA/ARMA executive summary
b) MARA LITe Tutorial exercises and
answers
Demonstrating through practical examples the functionality and application of MARA LITe for planning malaria control
c) MARA/ARMA technical report
in English and French
Also available on this web-site for downloading, see
www.mara.org.za > Publications.
d) A poster of the West African prevalence model
Included as an image:
/Resources/WesAfr PrevModel A1poster.bmp
This poster was released in collaboration with RBM.
2.
Raster GIS files of malaria models
Data grids of the original malaria models,
though not used by the MARA LITe software, are provided for the benefit
of raster GIS software users.
