High coverage of SMC relieving the malaria burden

The seven ACCESS-SMC countries came together this month in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to share results and lessons learned following the last implementation day in December 2016. To contribute to the reduction of malaria during the rainy season in the Sahel, ACCESS-SMC helped country National Malaria Control Programs procure and administer SP+AQ treatments to over 6.4 million children while monitoring the safety and effectiveness of SMC.

As each country presented their preliminary findings at the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Implementation Meeting, administrative data confirmed that the proportion of targeted children reached by ACCESS-SMC was satisfactory.

There is hope that such high coverage will improve impact data already described in 2015, where comparisons across HMIS data on cases of malaria showed significant reductions in The Gambia (65%), Burkina Faso (45%), Chad (24%) and Mali (49%). Similar analyses will be carried out on 2016 data to confirm the public health impact of the intervention.

With no fatalities recorded and less than 0.001% of all treated children showing signs of severe adverse reactions, SMC has been confirmed to be an effective and safe intervention for malaria prevention.

To view the presentations click here.

To view ACCESS-SMC's impact infographic click here.