World Malaria Day SOcial media toolkit

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Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) is a critical component of the antimalarial toolbox that protects children in endemic settings during the months when malaria transmission rates are at their highest.

In 2023 alone, some 53 million children received SMC in sub-Saharan Africa, thanks to the work of partnerships like @SMC Alliance, national malaria control programmes and the community health workers rolling out SMC campaigns on the ground.

As access to preventive tools expands, SMC remains a key pillar of malaria prevention. A recent Phase 3 study demonstrated that a combination of SMC and the RTS,S vaccine provide significant added protection against malaria in young children compared to either intervention alone.

As SMC continues to save lives, antimalarial drug resistance and #climatechange are bringing new challenges to malaria prevention efforts. Together with our partners, we must invest in these preventive medicines to discover new compounds for SMC, identify new combinations to counter resistance and expand overall access. Learn more: bit.ly/MMV_SMC

#WorldMalariaDay #EndMalaria #AccelerateTheFight

What is antimalarial drug resistance?

As an antimalarial drug is used repeatedly over time to cure patients, the #malaria parasite eventually evolves resistance to it, reducing the medicine’s efficacy. Ultimately, this threatens to undo the progress made towards malaria control and elimination efforts.

In 2022, WHO developed a strategy to respond to antimalarial drug resistance in Africa – where partial artemisinin resistance has been confirmed – promoting research into new tools countering resistance and better leveraging existing ones. Our partners, like Medicines for Malaria Venture, are supporting this strategy through the discovery and development of new antimalarials and advocating for the use of multiple first-line treatments (MFT) through the ALARM Partnership, aimed at preserving the effectiveness of long-standing medicines.

Moving forward, countering resistance will be integral to our collective ability to deliver the right medicines to the right patients at the right time and achieve the malaria elimination agenda. Learn more: bit.ly/MMV_AMR

The Plasmodium vivax parasite, which can cause relapsing malaria, is the second-most common species after Plasmodium falciparum and presents a critical barrier to elimination in the regions where it is most prevalent. Our partners Medicines for Malaria Venture and GSK have developed tafenoquine, a single-dose treatment used in combination with chloroquine for the radical cure of P. vivax malaria.

Following an extensive review of evidence of the feasibility, safety and efficacy of this new treatment protocol, Brazil became the first malaria-endemic country to adopt tafenoquine and STANDARD G6PD testing to treat relapsing P. vivax malaria in 2023. This year, the Brazilian Government has already started rolling out tafenoquine to the Yanomami indigenous people in the Amazon, which is an important step towards the country’s malaria elimination efforts.

The Partnership for Vivax Elimination (PAVE) – led by PATH and MMV and supported by GHS in Brazil – has been working with national malaria programmes and researchers to generate high-quality evidence informing #malaria case management in support of P. vivax elimination worldwide, and we look forward to tafenoquine’s adoption in other countries where this form of the disease continues to impact individuals and communities. Learn more: bit.ly/tq_Brazil

WorldMalariaDay #AccelerateTheFight #EndMalaria

Ismaël, a 4-year-old boy from Tchaloudè, Togo, has fallen ill with #malaria several times. According to his mother, Foussena, when he’s ill, he is unable to do anything, suffering from fever and headaches.

Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) protects children like Ismaël and his baby sister in endemic settings during the rainy season when malaria transmission rates are at their highest.

MMV and partners, including Catholic Relief Services and Malaria Consortium, have been supporting national malaria control programmes in rolling out SMC campaigns with great success. Some 200,000 African children were treated with at least one dose of SMC in 2012, whereas SMC reached over 53 million children in 2023.

Expanding access to this preventive medicine will save more lives and allow communities like Tchaloudè to dream of a malaria-free future.

Watch Medicines for Malaria’s latest film to see how collaborative efforts and medical advancements around SMC are impacting the lives of children in malaria-endemic settings: bit.ly/MMV-SMC-Togo

#WorldMalariaDay #EndMalaria #AccelerateTheFight

The theme of #WorldMalariaDay2024 is “Health equity, gender and human rights,” which helps put the spotlight on the needs of women of child-bearing age in malaria-endemic countries. #Malaria in #pregnancy can have devastating consequences, particularly in early pregnancy. Effective prevention in the first trimester could significantly improve maternal and pregnancy outcomes, but pregnant women are often excluded from clinical trials, resulting in new antimalarials being withheld from use in early pregnancy.

Excluding pregnant women from clinical research puts them at greater risk of adverse effects in the real world due to the lack of evidence on how they can safely use medicines. A recently published op-ed by Medicines for Malaria Venture’s Wiweka Kaszubska, André-Marie Tchouatieu and Doreen Akiyo Yomoah argues that the global health community must ensure women of child-bearing age are properly represented in clinical settings. This can give healthcare providers and pregnant women better access to optimal treatment options for malaria in early pregnancy. Learn more: bit.ly/4atsGJG

#WorldMalariaDay #GenderEquity #AccelerateTheFight

MMV and Novartis have announced positive clinical data from the Phase 2 and 3 trials of CALINA, a study developing a new formulation of Novartis’ artemether-lumefantrine tailored specifically to newborns. The data demonstrates that the novel formulation has good efficacy and safety, and the formulation will now be submitted for regulatory review.

The CALINA study is being conducted through the PAMAfrica Consortium, a global research partnership funded by EDCTP that aims to fill the critical treatment gap for newborns.

Malaria in newborns presents differently from toddlers and small children, and is often difficult to diagnose, which can delay treatment and cause serious complications or even death. Moreover, there is currently no #malaria treatment for babies weighing under 5kg – newborns diagnosed with malaria are treated with antimalarial tablets for bigger infants which are cut in half or quarters, an inaccurate process that risks overdoses and potential organ damage.

CALINA data will be shared at the MIM SOCIETY 8th Pan-African Malaria Conference, during a scientific symposium hosted by PAMAfrica partner ISGlobal, taking place tomorrow at 17:00.

Read the press release: bit.ly/PR_CALINA

#WorldMalariaDay #PAMAfrica4Malaria #Equity #Accelerate the fight

Health and #climatechange are inextricably linked. Natural disasters that exacerbate health inequities are occurring with greater frequency, seasonal patterns are shifting and the areas in which disease-carrying vectors can survive are changing.

The full impact of climate on #malaria remains to be seen, but malaria control and elimination efforts must take these impacts into consideration. Doing so requires investment in data collection to better understand climate patterns and optimize preventive campaigns accordingly, and in R&D to develop flexible, adaptable and complementary tools to prevent and treat malaria and other diseases.

Without proactive planning to mitigate and respond to climate change, it may undo years of progress against malaria.

Read Medicines for Malaria Venture’s op-ed penned by Doreen Akiyo Yomoah and Dr André Tchouatieu in SDG Action: bit.ly/3vV93Lz

#WorldMalariaDay #AccelerateTheFight

For children with severe #malaria in remote areas, every minute matters when it comes to receiving life-saving treatment. Administered by community health workers, rectal artesunate capsules (RAS) buy precious time, allowing children to be brought to healthcare facilities to receive further treatment.

The SEMA ReACT Consortium partners – TDRC, the Global Health Institute at the University of Antwerp, the University of Kinshasa, the National Institute for Medical Research (Tanzania) and Medicines for Malaria Venture – are assessing and mitigating operational and institutional facilitators and barriers at the level of all stakeholders (patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, regulators and malaria experts) to recommend sustainable policies and health equity in this remote context.

Learn more about this EDCTP-funded Africa/Europe partnership and sign up for the latest updates: severemalaria.org/sema-react #WorldMalariaDay #AccelerateTheFight

Since its founding 25 years ago, Medicines for Malaria Venture and partners have screened over 10 million novel and diverse compounds to identify possible new drug discovery projects, helping expand the antimalarial toolbox with 15 innovative medicines that have saved 15.4 million lives.

On #WorldMalariaDay, and every other day, we stand with the global #malaria community and its commitment to overcoming the threats facing the world’s health. Let’s unite and fully resource the global effort as never before, to accelerate progress towards elimination.

#EndMalaria #HealthForAll #ZeroMalaria #AccelerateTheFight

Across the world, community health workers play a critical role in delivering life-saving medicines, spreading awareness of prevention and treatment methods, and expanding global access to healthcare. They have been and will remain an integral part of the malaria elimination agenda, but require continued support and investment to facilitate their work and continue saving millions of lives.

#WorldMalariaDay #ZeroMalaria #AccelerateTheFight