The fight against malaria remains a national priority. Togo is maintaining its monitoring and optimizing its efforts to reduce the prevalence of this disease. Actions, including chemo-prevention in this case, protect the health of its population.
In 2022, the country had around 2.5 million cases of malaria, more than a third of them among children. In response, chemo-prevention campaigns against malaria are regularly organized. Launched in July 2023, they save lives.
What is it about ?
Chemoprevention is a health strategy that involves administering antimalarial drugs to high-risk populations in areas where the disease is endemic.
It is an intervention which aims to prevent or considerably reduce the risk of infection by the malaria parasite in exposed people, in particular children and pregnant women whose health is often fragile.
Antimalarial drugs used in chemoprevention are usually combinations of artemisinin or other long-acting antimalarials.
They are administered preventively at regular intervals during a specific period, usually during the rainy season when mosquitoes are common.
It is a practice that has demonstrated its effectiveness in several studies, it is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an effective strategy to reduce the prevalence of malaria, deaths and complications associated with the disease.
New campaign in Togo
This will cover the Plateaux region which has more than 1.6 million inhabitants, according to the latest general census of the population and inhabitants (RGPH-5) which figures the total number of inhabitants in the territory at 8.09 million.
This region was chosen, as guaranteed by the coordinator of the National Malaria Control Program (PNLP), after campaigns carried out in the northern areas of the country. The agents started in the Savanes region, then they went to the Centrale, and then to the Kara region.
The campaign concerns children aged 3 to 59 months who are identified and treated systematically, by giving them a drug that remains in the blood for a month, to prevent the child from getting malaria.
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