Malaria Consortium’s SMC campaign set to start

Thanks to support from generous donors like those at The Life You Can Save, Malaria Consortium’s latest seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) campaign is about to begin across three countries in the Sahel region of Africa: Chad, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. 

We aim to reach more than 5.5 million children under five with SMC treatment during this campaign, which will protect them from malaria during the rainy season. Most malaria illness and deaths occur during the rainy season, and SMC involves providing safe and effective antimalarial drugs to those most at risk – children under five. 

Malaria Consortium is currently helping to train drug distributors and their supervisors to ensure that the treatments are given according to guidelines. We have also been busy making sure that the requisite numbers of drugs have arrived in time for the SMC campaign to start. 

With all of this in place, the campaign will begin in earnest this month. It will be delivered in four cycles, at monthly intervals. At the start of each cycle, the child’s caregiver receives a blister pack of the SMC drugs (a WHO-recommended combination of amodiaquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine), and the first dose is taken when the drug distributor is present, so they can learn how to administer the drugs. The caregiver then gives the child the subsequent doses over the next two days. 

Malaria Consortium has been delivering SMC campaigns in the Sahel region since 2013. These are exciting, busy times for the project, and we would like to thank all of our supporters from The Life You Can Save for their generosity. Together we will protect millions of children from malaria this rainy season.  

You can read more about Malaria Consortium’s seasonal malaria chemoprevention program here and support their work here.