COTONOU, BENIN - The United States Government is contributing to the protection of 124,000 children from malaria by providing preventive medication to families in the departments of Alibori and Atacora between July and October. 

Through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), the United States is working with local health authorities and communities to administer seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC), a safe and cost-effective series of anti-malarial treatments for children under five years. 

The United States is providing SMC in Benin’s north, where the risk of malaria infection rises significantly during the rainy season, when mosquitoes are most able to reproduce and transmit the deadly disease.

“USAID is protecting children from malaria to ensure that they have a healthy start to life. This support to SMC is part of our long-standing contribution to improved health services and strengthened health systems in Benin, including in malaria prevention and treatment, maternal and child health, and the fight against COVID-19,” said USAID/Benin Country Representative Mr. Carl Anderson.

USAID and PMI will conduct the 2020 campaign with measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including socially distanced training for health workers and the use of masks, hand sanitizer, and spoons to prevent the contamination of medications.

USAID and PMI will administer the four monthly treatments in the Health Zones of Malanville-Karimama and Tanguiéta-Matéri-Cobly, while interventions in Banikoara and Kandi-Gogounou-Ségbana will be supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Together, the SMC campaign will employ a digitalized system for the first time, to improve data accuracy and monitor the drug treatments in real-time.

Through PMI, the United States has supported the fight against malaria in Benin since 2006. In addition to preventive medications, the United States also acquires and distributes bed nets, administers indoor residual spraying, trains health workers, and provides artemisinin-based combination therapies. 

For more than a half century, the United States has been the largest contributor to global health security, contributing more than $140 billion in global health assistance in the last 20 years. In Benin, the United States committed more than $4.5 million to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and $25 million in health assistance in 2020.