In 2012, when the World Health Organization recommended a malaria prevention approach that could protect children in high-risk areas, we knew we had to ensure all eligible children could receive it. Called seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC), it required administering monthly antimalarial medicines to young children in parts of Africa that see these seasonal spikes in malaria transmission. It had only been tested in small pilot programs and many thought it would be too complex and expensive to be feasible at scale.
In this , we show how Unitaid brought partners together to prove that delivering SMC could be done. Today, SMC is a critical tool in the fight against malaria, protecting more than 49 million children in 2022.
