Let’s protect more expectant mothers and their babies from malaria! [1]
Sign the letter [2]
Last year, a staggering 11.6 million pregnant women were infected with malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in 819,000 babies with low birthweight. Malaria in pregnancy is associated with outcomes such as maternal anaemia, miscarriage, and mortality.1
These outcomes can be averted with three simple, life-saving interventions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) currently recommends that all pregnant women sleep under an insecticide-treated bednet and receive prompt diagnosis and effective treatment of malaria cases. In addition, a cost-effective tool exists to stop the malaria parasite in its devastating path: Intermittent Preventive Treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) with quality-assured sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), or IPTp-SP. IPTp-SP is recommended by the WHO for all eligible pregnant women in malaria-endemic areas in Africa.
Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to malaria infection and need to be prioritized in the response to this disease. Unfortunately, they are often forgotten. In 2020, more than two thirds of eligible pregnant women across sub-Saharan Africa did not receive the recommended three doses of IPTp-SP.2 While uptake has improved slowly in the last decade, it has remained low compared to other malaria-control interventions and falls far short of global targets.
Read and sign the letter [2] to help influence top-level decision-makers to increase their efforts to protect more pregnant women from malaria. The letter and signatures will be delivered to heads of state and ministers of health ahead of the African Union Summit in 2023. You too can join the global call urging decision-makers to #endmalaria among mothers and babies.
1. WHO. World Malaria Report 2021. [3]
2. Ibid.