Intermittent preventative treatment to reduce the risk of malaria during pregnancy

Malaria infection during pregnancy is a major public health problem. Pregnancy reduces a woman’s immunity, making pregnant women more susceptible to malaria infection and increasing the risk of illness, anaemia, severe disease and death. For the unborn child, maternal malaria increases the risk of spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, premature delivery and low birth weight – a leading cause of child mortality.

WHO recommends a package of interventions for preventing and controlling malaria during pregnancy, which includes promotion and use of insecticide-treated nets, appropriate case management with prompt, effective treatment, and, in areas with moderate to high transmission of P. falciparum, administration of intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP).

Currently available evidence from malaria-endemic countries indicates that IPTp-SP is associated with reduced maternal parasitaemia, reduced low birth weight infants and increased mean birth weight.