Despite ongoing efforts,malaria remains a significant health challenge, particularly for young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Recognizing the disproportionate burden of malaria among children under the age of five, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended Intermittent Preventive Treatment for Infants (IPTi) in 2010. This strategy involved administering antimalarial medication to infants during routine immunization visits. While IPTi has shown promise in reducing malaria-related illness, its implementation has been limited. To address this, the WHO expanded the recommendation in 2022 to include children up to two years of age and renamed the intervention Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention (PMC). Studies have consistently demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of PMC in reducing malaria incidence, anemia, and hospitalizations, making it a highly cost-effective intervention.

The MULTIPLY project is dedicated to implementing pilot PMC interventions in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Through collaboration with local health systems, we aim to maximize the reach and provide addtition evidence on the effectiveness of PMC. Our ultimate goal is to support with the integration of PMC into existing healthcare services, with the hope to improve child health outcomes and inform future malaria prevention strategies.

The MULTIPLY project addresses the following key areas:

  • Impact on malaria incidence, anemia, mortality, and drug resistance: Measuring the effectiveness of PMC in reducing malaria burden and monitoring for potential development of drug resistance.PMC operational feasibility and acceptability: Assessing the practical implementation of PMC and its acceptance within healthcare systems and communities.
  • Impact on health services integration: Evaluating how PMC integrates with existing immunization and vitamin A supplementation programs.
  • SP Resistance
  • Cost-effectiveness of PMC delivery: Determining the financial implications of delivering PMC, including through outreach services.

By addressing these areas, MULTIPLY aims to generate valuable evidence to support the widespread scale-up of PMC.

MULTIPLY is a 40-month project funded by The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) aiming to:

  1. Build capacity and establish an environment to support transition to Ministries of Health for scale-up and sustainable PMC in project countries
  2. Generate and disseminate knowledge to the WHO and Ministries of Health of project countries to inform recommendations and guidance for PMC delivery, integrated within national Maternal, New-born and Child Health (MNCH), National Malaria Control Program (NMCP), Nutrition and EPI policy and/or guidelines.
  3. Strengthen South-South and South-North networks to fight poverty-related diseases such as malaria.
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