The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented challenges to health systems worldwide, including the control of non-COVID-19 diseases. Malaria cases and deaths may increase due to the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic in malaria-endemic countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This scoping review aims to summarize information on public health-relevant effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the malaria situation in SSA. Review of publications and manuscripts on preprint servers, in peer-reviewed journals and in grey literature documents from 1 December, 2019 to 9 June, 2021. A structured search was conducted on different databases using predefined eligibility criteria for the selection of articles. A total of 51 papers have been included in the analysis. Modelling papers have predicted a significant increase in malaria cases and malaria deaths in SSA due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many papers provided potential explanations for expected COVID-19 effects on the malaria burden; these ranged from relevant diagnostical and clinical aspects to reduced access to health care services, impaired availability of curative and preventive commodities and medications, and effects on malaria prevention campaigns. Compared to previous years, fewer country reports provided data on the actual number of malaria cases and deaths in 2020, with mixed results. While highly endemic countries reported evidence of decreased malaria cases in health facilities, low endemic countries reported overall higher numbers of malaria cases and deaths in 2020. The findings from this review provide evidence for a significant but diverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on malaria in SSA. There is the need to further investigate the public health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the malaria burden. Protocol registered on Open Science Framework: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/STQ9D

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行对撒哈拉以南非洲疟疾的公共卫生相关影响：范围界定审查


COVID-19 大流行给全世界的卫生系统带来了前所未有的挑战，包括非 COVID-19 疾病的控制。由于疟疾流行国家特别是撒哈拉以南非洲国家大流行的直接和间接影响，疟疾病例和死亡人数可能会增加。本次范围界定审查旨在总结有关 COVID-19 大流行对 SSA 疟疾状况的公共卫生相关影响的信息。对2019年12月1日至2021年6月9日预印本服务器、同行评审期刊和灰色文献文档中的出版物和手稿进行​​审查。使用预定义的文章选择资格标准对不同的数据库进行了结构化搜索。分析中总共纳入了 51 篇论文。模型论文预测，由于 COVID-19 大流行的影响，SSA 的疟疾病例和疟疾死亡人数将显着增加。许多论文对 COVID-19 对疟疾负担的预期影响提供了可能的解释；这些问题包括相关的诊断和临床方面、获得保健服务的机会减少、治疗和预防商品和药物的供应受到影响以及对疟疾预防运动的影响。与往年相比，提供 2020 年疟疾病例和死亡实际人数数据的国家报告较少，结果好坏参半。尽管高流行国家报告了卫生机构中疟疾病例减少的证据，但低流行国家报告称 2020 年疟疾病例和死亡人数总体较高。本次审查的结果为 COVID-19 大流行对疟疾产生重大但多样化的影响提供了证据在SSA。 有必要进一步调查 COVID-19 大流行对疟疾负担的公共卫生影响。在开放科学框架上注册的协议：https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF。IO/STQ9D