title: Malaria epidemiological research in the Republic of Congo.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Reliable and comprehensive information on the burden of malaria is critical for guiding national and international efforts in malaria control. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of published data and available information on malaria resulting from field studies/investigations conducted in the Republic of Congo (RoC) from 1992 to 2015, as baseline for assisting public health authorities and researchers to define future research priorities as well as interventions.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review considers data from peer-reviewed articles and information from the National Malaria Control Programme reports, based on field investigations or samples collected from 1992 to 2015. Peer-reviewed papers were searched throughout online bibliographic databases PubMed, HINARI and Google Scholar using the following terms: "malaria", "Congo", "Brazzaville", "prevalence", "antimalarial", "efficacy", "falciparum", "genetic", "diversity". Original articles and reviews were included and selection of relevant papers was made.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-eight published articles were included in this review and two additional records from the National Malaria Control Programme were also considered. The majority of studies were conducted in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present systematic review reveals that number of studies have been conducted in the RoC with regard to malaria. However, their results cannot formally be generalized at the country level. This suggests a need for implementing regular multisite investigations and surveys that may be representative of the country, calling for the support and lead of the Ministry of Health.
authors.affiliation: Fondation Congolaise Pour la Recherche Médicale, Villa D6, WHO AFRO Campus, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Koukouikila-Koussounda
authors.affiliation: Fondation Congolaise Pour la Recherche Médicale, Villa D6, WHO AFRO Campus, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. fntoumi@fcrm-congo.com.|Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, University Marien Ngouabi, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. fntoumi@fcrm-congo.com.|Institute for Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. fntoumi@fcrm-congo.com.
authors.forename: Francine
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ntoumi
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends*; D003223:Congo / Q000453:epidemiology; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012106:Research
keywords: Health research; Malaria; Plasmodium falciparum; Republic of Congo; Review