2020 World Malaria Report highlights the need for a stronger push to increase IPTp coverage of pregnant women

The 2020 World Malaria Report highlights the need for a stronger push to increase IPTp coverage of pregnant women. According to the report, in 2019:

• Just over one third (34%) of pregnant women in 36 African countries received the recommended 3 or more doses of IPTp-SP. This represents a considerable increase in coverage since 2010 but only a modest increase since 2018.
• An estimated 11.6 million pregnant women living in 33 African countries with moderate-to-high transmission were infected with malaria (35% of all pregnancies). As a result, an estimated 822 000 children in these 33 countries were born with a low birth weight.

This indicates that the global malaria community we can do better and the Global Call to Action to Speed Up IPTp Scale Up should continue to mobilize leaders, health policy makers, communities & service providers for better protection of millions of pregnant women and their newborn children from the devastating consequences caused by malaria in pregnancy. Let’s Speed Up Scale-Up of IPTp and aim to bring this lifesaving intervention to protect all eligible women!

Source: World Malaria Report 2020