48 million children in 15 African countries receive SMC in 2022

Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) is recommended to prevent the disease among children living in areas with highly seasonal malaria transmission in Africa. In 2022, further expansion of this intervention reached nearly 48 million children in 15 African countries, a major increase from 45 million in 2021. In 2020, Uganda and Mozambique implemented SMC for the first time through pilot projects. Several others, such as South Sudan are piloting the intervention due to its reported effectiveness in the Sahel.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), countries around the world largely persisted against further setbacks to malaria prevention, testing and treatment services in 2021.

As per the 2021, World malaria report, there were an estimated 619 000 malaria deaths globally in 2021 compared to 625 000 in the first year of the pandemic. In 2019, before the pandemic struck, the number of deaths stood at 568 000.

Critical proven interventions such as SMC, alongside other malaria prevention and treatment tools must be maintained to ensure that no additional lives are lost to malaria.