Tenin Keita is 3 years old and lives with her family, including her baby brother Moussa, in the Dabola prefecture of the Faranah Region of Guinea. This region is plagued with malaria, especially during and just after the rainy season from July to October. Today, SMC is being rolled out to protect children like Tenin and her brother from malaria, and the results are impressive. Tenin and Moussa’s mother, Fatoumata Binta Diallo, happily explains that none of her children suffered from malaria in 2018.

This wasn’t always the case. The year before there had been many more cases of malaria in the village. “Yes, it’s changed,” explains Fatoumata. “My neighbour’s daughter was really very ill last year. Now she’s ok. She’s been better since we got the medicines. The children don’t cry, it’s fine. They take them without any problem.”

SMC was provided to all eligible children in the Dabola prefecture, Guinea, for the first time in 2018. The director of the Dabola area hospital explained that there had been a 25% reduction in malaria-related hospital admissions between 2017 and 2018 – since the implementation of SMC. As a practical illustration, he also noted there had been an important decrease in the demand for blood bags for transfusion, which he attributed to a decrease in the number of children with severe anaemia caused by malaria.