London, 28 July 2016 - This summer seven countries across the Sahel will embark upon the second year of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) distribution as part of the ACCESS-SMC project. SMC is a lifesaving preventive malaria intervention during which teams of national health workers deliver SMC treatment to children under five.
In the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, the risk of malaria increases with the arrival of the rainy season, during which 60% of malaria cases occur. Among those most at risk are children under five. To address this issue, and following successful clinical trials in 2012, the World Health Organization recommends the use of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in areas where there is a seasonal peak in malaria rates.
ACCESS-SMC, funded by UNITAID and run by Malaria Consortium in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, is the first project to promote the scale-up of SMC to children under five in seven countries in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa. As part of the project, in 2015 over three million children received SMC in the first year of the project. In this second year, country teams across the Sahel aim to double this impact and reach over six million children. “This is massive, […] we are talking about millions of children not having malaria, or not as severe malaria as they would have had before,” says Diego Moroso, ACCESS-SMC’s Project Director.
This is the first year that SMC will be rolled out at such a scale, with additional stakeholders such as the World Bank also working to distribute SMC. Specific to the ACCESS-SMC project, however, will be the use of a newly developed dispersible formula of the drugs. Not only will this make the administration of this medicine easier, avoiding time needed to crush the drugs, it will also have a sweeter more palatable taste for the young children.
Speaking about the importance of SMC at a recent Malaria Consortium symposium, Dr. Peter Olumese, Medical Officer for the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Programme said, "We know from research that in the Sahel region, we can reduce the number of children under five who are falling sick or dying from malaria by up to 75 percent."
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About Malaria Consortium
Malaria Consortium is a leading not-for-profit organization dedicated to the control of malaria and applies its depth of technical expertise and practical experience to develop smarter solutions that improve and save lives. Through innovation, Malaria Consortium increases the impact of malaria and disease control programmes so that they benefit all communities, including delivery in the most challenging environments. Malaria Consortium has pioneered best practices and approaches, setting the standards for delivery and access. Malaria Consortium’s headquarter is in London, United Kingdom, with over 95% of its staff based in malaria-endemic countries supporting Ministries of Health and partners in over 20 countries every year. For more information, please visit www.malariaconsortium.org.
About Catholic Relief Services
With almost 5000 staff worldwide and over 70 years of experience, CRS is one of the oldest and most reliable aid agencies in the world. In 2014, CRS worked in 101 countries and touched the lives of 85 million people. Our three main areas of focus are health, agriculture and emergencies. In health, CRS focuses primarily on malaria, nutrition, early childhood development, and strengthening health systems working closely with Ministries of Health, as well as a wide range of partners including local partners, faith-based health networks, private companies and universities.
For more information: http://www.crs.org
About UNITAID
UNITAID is part of the global response to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, contributing by facilitating access to new, better, faster and more affordable medicines, technologies and systems. It plays a catalytic role, finding and transforming game-changing ideas into workable solutions for real world problems. Ultimately, it enables access to better and more affordable tools for the broader landscape of donors, countries and communities, helping them to achieve greater impact from existing resources. UNITAID was founded in 2006 by the governments of Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the UK. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
For more information about the ACCESS-SMC project, please contact Hannah Finch, External Relations Officer, Malaria Consortium: h.finch@malariaconsortium.org
Hannah Finch
External Relations Officer
Malaria Consortium
Direct Line: +44 (0)20 7549 0586
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Malaria Consortium improves lives in Africa and Asia through sustainable, evidence-based programmes that combat targeted diseases and promote child and maternal health.