The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative is a committed partner protecting pregnant women from malaria.
One method is to provide pregnant women with safe preventive antimalarial medicine, an approach called intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy (IPTp). IPTp is the national policy in 22 of PMI’s 24 focus countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In our first 15 years we procured 127 million doses and in fiscal year 2020 procured enough tablets to protect 7.5 million pregnant women with preventive treatment. The proportion of women receiving at least three doses of IPTp has more than doubled from 12% to 33% in PMI partner countries. More than half of women now receive at least two doses.
Our commitment to keeping pregnant women safe includes considering how to improve upon existing interventions and exploring new ways of delivering services.Therefore, the Transforming Intermittent Preventive Treatment for Optimal Pregnancy (TIPTOP) Project invited Dr. Raj Panjabi to deliver opening remarks at their Virtual Regional Learning Meeting about bringing malaria preventive medicine to women in the community rather than waiting for them to come to a prenatal appointment.