Implementation of Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention (PMC) within the MULTIPLY project started in Mozambique – 2 December 2022
Dr Carlos Estevao administering the first SP dose to the first child at Massinga- Sede Health Centre
The implementation of PMC under the MULTIPLY project started in Massinga (Inhambane province) on the 2nd of December 2022. The first child to receive the first of the 6 doses of PMC was registered at the Massinga Sede Health Facility. Scale-up of implementation to the rest of the 14 health facilities in the province ended on the 13th of December.
The Medical Director of the Massinga Health District, Dr Carlos Estevao, the district malaria focal point, the health care personnel of the Massinga Sede Health Facility, the MULTIPLY technical coordinator and MULTIPLY team members from CISM and ISGlobal were present for the occasion. Mothers and caretakers present at the health facility were addressed by Dr Estevao who highlighted the importance of PMC and encouraged the parents to adhere to it.
MULTIPLY delivers PMC through the Healthily Child Consultation Programme (CCS) which is linked to the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) by the calendar for a child’s visit at the health facility. The CCS has been identified by NMCP and its partners as the only feasible, sustainable, and cost-effective strategy to reach this high-risk group in the Mozambican context. PMC is a full therapeutic course of antimalarial medicine (with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) delivered to infants in the context of routine immunization services during the first two years of life. MULTIPLY is the pilot implementation of PMC in selected districts in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Togo to maximize the delivery and uptake of PMC, to achieve the full potential of this intervention. Working with the ministries of health in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Togo, MULTIPLY will give up to 6 doses of PMC in the first two years of life. PMC will be given at health facilities and EPI mobile outreach clinics using a paediatric dispersible formulation of SP, alongside routine vaccinations and vitamin A supplementation.
