In June, South Sudan is expecting to roll out a lifesaving malaria prevention intervention that for so long has mainly been used in the Sahel. But there are concerns its use may only be short-lived in eastern and southern African countries due to high parasite resistance.
Seasonal malaria chemoprevention, or SMC, is a form of preventive malaria intervention that uses a combination of drugs — sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and amodiaquine — to prevent malaria among children below 5 years old who account for almost 80% of all malaria deaths in the World Health Organization’s Africa region.
SMC is the malaria prevention intervention that covers children in areas that experience seasonal malaria. In 2012, WHO recommended its scale up in the Sahel, where malaria transmission is highly seasonal, particularly during the rainy season. In the decade since its implementation, the intervention prevented more than 160 million malaria infections and 700,000 deaths in children, according to Unitaid, which has supported its scale up.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
