© Peter Bauza
“Children under five years of age are the most at risk of complications and even death if infected with malaria,” said Buai Tut Chol, Doctors Without Borders medical coordinator support in South Sudan. “Complications can include anaemia and convulsions, becoming unconscious, or being unable to talk or walk. This is where seasonal malaria chemoprevention has a positive impact by reducing the burden of the disease on children.”
This year, Doctors Without Borders plans to collaborate with the Ministry of Health to implement SMC in Aweil, Northern Bahr El Ghazal State, with a similar goal to reduce simple and severe cases of malaria among children under five.
How seasonal malaria chemoprevention works
SMC involves administering the malaria medications sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and amodiaquine in 3 doses (once daily doses for 3 days) at each round, with one-month interval from one round to the next, to all children under 5 during the rainy season, when the risk of malaria transmission is at its highest.
Community involvement is crucial to the success of the campaign, particularly at the start of an SMC campaign, as Doctors Without Borders works with local leaders to ensure as many children as possible are involved. Doctors Without Borders also tackles the other childhood killer diseases at the same time, often screening children from malnutrition, diarrheal diseases or vaccinating against measles.
© Igor Barbero/MSF
In 2019, Doctors Without Borders teams covered rural areas up to 53 kilometers away from Yambio, which was not an easy task due to the limited and poor road network. However, it was worth every effort, as Doctors Without Borders Medical Coordinator for South Sudan, Sara Miro, explained: “It was exasperating to learn that many people were missing out on medical services due to the long distance to the town and dying of a preventable disease, like malaria.”
Aweil: Doctors Without Borders’s Second SMC Campaign in South Sudan
Following the successful implementation in Yambio, SMC is now included in South Sudan's new national malaria strategy, and Doctors Without Borders is preparing to launch its second SMC campaign in partnership with the Ministry of Health. The campaign aims to target up to 25,109 children below the age of five, in five monthly rounds in Aweil town in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State. Health teams will also conduct malnutrition screening and malaria test and treat.
This effort aims to reduce the burden of malaria among young children, as Doctors Without Borders medical teams see an extraordinary number of children with malaria at Aweil State Hospital every year. From 2016 to 2020, Doctors Without Borders teams at the hospital have diagnosed and treated nearly 40,000 children with malaria, including more than 3,000 children under 5 per year with severe malaria.
“Nearly every year, we must expand the pediatric ward of Aweil State Hospital with temporary tents to accommodate the hundreds of children who fall seriously ill with malaria during the rainy season. Seasonal malaria chemoprevention is one way we hope to lessen this burden on children and their families, and we hope it will be expanded further.”Jean Stowell,Head of mission South Sudan
SMC is not the only intervention needed to prevent malaria in South Sudan. It is critical that people receive insecticide-treated bed nets and that primary health care facilities receive sufficient volumes of rapid diagnostic tests and malaria medications before the rainy season begins, as well as the supervision they need to properly treat malaria at the community level. Mosquito control efforts are needed as well, which can be done through indoor residual sprayings, for example.
“Malaria prevention activities must be a priority for international support in South Sudan, including seasonal malaria chemoprevention,” Stowell said. “We hope other health actors will adopt this approach and ensure that it is scaled up across the country.
In July 2020, after over 14 years and with improvements in the overall health and humanitarian situation and other healthcare providers having returned to the area, MSF closed its projects in Yambio, Western Equatoria State. We remain prepared to respond if conditions deteriorate and emergency needs arise.
Since 2008, MSF has been running the paediatric and maternity departments in Aweil State Hospital (run by the Ministry of Health). It is the only hospital for a population of more than 100,000 in Aweil town and over 1 million people in the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State. Across South Sudan, MSF treated 22,400 people for malaria in the first three months of 2021.
MSF currently works in a total of 13 projects across South Sudan.
