Monitoring &Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Bill Brieger | 01 Nov 2022 10:31 am
Evaluation of the Implementation of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) through Independent Monitoring in Burkina Faso
Moumouni Bonkoungou, Ousmane Badolo, Mathurin Bonzi, Youssouf Sawadogo, Andre Kone, Thierry Ouedraogo, Mathurin Dodo, Lolade Oseni, Gladys Tetteh, and William Brieger shared information on ?Evaluation of the Implementation of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) through Independent Monitoring in Burkina Faso during the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.?
In Burkina Faso, malaria is the leading cause of children < 5 morbidity (40.6% of severe cases), and 72.4% of death in 2020. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) was recommended by WHO in 2012, and since 2014, it has been implemented in Burkina Faso. SMC consists monthly doses (03 doses) of Amodiaquine Plus Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine to all eligible children (3-59 months) during the season of high malaria transmission.
To ensure the quality of the intervention and the coverage achieved, two independent monitoring surveys were conducted at the first (C1) and fourth (C4) rounds (of 2020?). In order to minimize bias, non-health care workers (mainly teachers) were recruited, trained and supervised for the purpose of this survey.
Monitoring was conducted in 43 districts, including 19 in the PMI/USAID Impact Malaria project area, where 838,000 children received treatment. The number of children seen in the houses was 6752 at C1 and 6608 at C4 (10 houses per selected village).
The results show that 98% and 98.2% of the targeted children received treatment at C1 and C4, respectively; 78.8% presented evidence of treatment (cards or empty drug packs) at C1. At C4, 65% of children (73) who did not receive treatment were ineligible. During this cycle, only 57% had cards and 75.6% of the cards were correctly filled in on Day2 and Day3 by the parents.
We also note that 97.1% of the children took the treatment at Day2 and Day3 according to the parent’s declaration at C4 and 97.4% at C1. 2.4% of the parents did not give the medication at Day2 or Day3 compared to the fourth visit. Also, 99.9% (2274) of the parents were satisfied with the SMC at C4, they were 99.7% at C1.
These results show an overall good implementation in accordance with the guidelines of SMC. We note a reduction of lethality in many districts like Kampti (78%). However, challenges exist such as outreach communication which needs to be improved, availability and proper storage of treatment cards, referral of cases requiring to be seen by a health care worker. Independent monitoring shows a better figure of the SMC coverage and allow the implementation of qualitative SMC campaign.