Meeting report of the Evidence Review Group on intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) of malaria in pregnancy

Overview

In October 2012, WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee (MPAC) updated the malaria in pregnancy policy for intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP). The updated policy recommends that women who live in moderate to high malaria transmission areas should receive IPTp-SP as early as possible in the second trimester and at every scheduled antenatal visit thereafter, provided that these are at least one month apart.

As a further step in the policy making process to prevent the adverse consequences of malaria in pregnancy, and to assess possible new drugs for use with IPTp, the Global Malaria Programme convened an Evidence Review Group (terms of reference and list of members) on 9-11 July 2013 to review the latest evidence on the effectiveness of IPTp-SP in relation to Plasmodium falciparum antifolate resistance and decreasing malaria transmission. The ERG also reviewed the results of recently completed multicentre clinical trials that evaluated the efficacy and safety of mefloquine as IPTp (IPTp-MQ).