Nigeria: Nigeria Moves Closer to Protecting Millions of Children From Malaria With Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention
[Malaria Consortium] The first phase of the Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention Effect study has provided Nigeria with robust local evidence to guide national policy.
On 5 August 2026, government officials, researchers, and development partners convened in Abuja for the national dissemination of the Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention (PMC) Effect study. This milestone marked significant progress in Nigeria's efforts to protect young children from malaria. The study's completion provided robust local evidence to inform national policy, demonstrating that PMC can substantially decrease malaria cases among children under two years old while being effectively integrated into Nigeria's primary healthcare system.
Key findings included a 22 percent reduction in confirmed malaria cases for PMC recipients and a 19 percent decline in overall health facility visits for illness. The study also revealed that combining PMC with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) medication provided over 50 percent protection against malaria infection within 28 days.
Moreover, the cost-effectiveness of delivering PMC through existing immunization services was confirmed. These results bolstered confidence among policymakers that PMC could be a valuable addition to Nigeria's comprehensive malaria prevention strategy. With mathematical modeling indicating that scaling up PMC could reduce clinical malaria cases among children aged 2-18 months by 20 to 35 percent, the future of malaria prevention in Nigeria appears promising.
The next phase of the study, PMC-Effect Scale-up, is set to begin in November, expanding the intervention to the rest of Osun state and assessing the factors necessary for effective scale-up across various health system levels.
Written by urgent.news from AllAfrica Health's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
