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PMI: Presidents Malaria Initiative - Saving lives in Africa.

Prevention of Malaria in Pregnant Women

  Photo of Morogoro health worker giving a pregnant mother her IPTp drugs.
  Soon-to-be mother Halima Athmani is taking her first dose of tablets to prevent malaria as part of her antenatal visit at an urban health care facility in Tanzania’s Morogoro district. Read the full story. Source: Karie Atkinson/USAID

Each year, more than 30 million African women living in malaria-endemic areas become pregnant and are at risk for malaria. Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy (IPTp) involves two to three doses of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) administered to a pregnant woman during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Since more than seventy percent of pregnant women in Africa attend antenatal clinics at least once during their pregnancy, the provision of IPTp during antenatal care visits is both feasible and attractive. The regimen protects pregnant women from possible death and anemia and also prevents malaria-related low birthweight in infants, which is responsible for between 100,000 and 200,000 infant deaths annually in Africa. PMI activities include purchasing SP, training health care workers in administering the drug, and providing information about IPTp to pregnant women, distributing bednets to pregnant women and supporting prompt diagnosis and treatment of malaria in pregnant women.

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