Novel programme shows promise in Malaria prevention
MSF press release: A large-scale malaria prevention program, consisting of intermittent distributions of anti-malaria medicines, appears to be drastically reducing the number of new cases of the disease among young children during peak transmission season, according to preliminary results from projects run by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in two African countries.
Antimalaria medicines have been administered prophylactically to approximately 175,000 children between three months and five years of age in Koutiala District in southern Mali and in two areas of Moïssala District in Chad, through an intervention known as seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC). Children in that age group are among the most vulnerable to death from malaria due to weaker immunity. Preliminary results show more than a two-thirds drop in the number of simple malaria cases in the intervention area in Mali and up to an 86 percent drop in Chad. A significant decrease of cases of severe malaria is also being recorded.
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