Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112938

Erin Eckert, PhD¹, Ani E. Hyslop, MD MPH¹, and Robert Snow, PhD². (1) Measure Evaluation Project, Macro International Inc., 11785 Beltsville Dr., Suite 300, Calverton, MD 20705, 301-572-0200, erin.eckert@orcmacro.com, (2) KEMRI, Oxford University, KEMRI, Nairobi, Kenya

Malaria infection in pregnancy is recognized as an important cause of adverse pregnancy outcomes including spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, and low birth weight. The recommended intervention for prevention of malaria in pregnancy is ‘intermittent preventive treatment' (IPT), a treatment dose of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) given at least twice following quickening. IPT is implemented through antenatal care services (ANC) to take advantage of existing infrastructure and high ANC coverage rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Roll Back Malaria Initiative and the Abuja Declaration both set goals of 60% coverage of pregnant women with IPT but many countries are facing barriers to scale-up. This paper examines the evidence from national level Demographic and Health surveys to explore country-specific patterns of ANC utilization which constitute barriers to IPT scale up and estimate which countries will be able to meet implementation targets.The data include indicators of knowledge and use of ANC, as well as information on timing of ANC initiation, frequency of attendance, and delivery of antimalarials. Preliminary findings indicate that roughly half of African countries with endemic malaria will not reach the international targets. The obstacles to scale up include inadequate ANC utilization patterns by pregnant women and lack of effective IPT policy implementation by the health sector.

Learning Objectives:

• The participants will be able to define intermittent preventive treatment and discuss its use in preventing malaria in pregnancy.
• Participants will identify the barriers to implementation of IPT on a national scale.
• Participants will assess the relative importance of barriers on the 'demand' or client side vs. the 'supply' or health sector side and will discuss options to overcome the barriers.

Keywords: International Public Health, Infectious Diseases

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation