WHO Releases World Malaria Report 2014

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By: Katie Millar, Technical Writer, Women and Health Initiative, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Today, WHO released the annual World Malaria Report for 2014. This report reviews the state of malaria throughout the world and also provides 98 country profiles detailing epidemiologic, policy, financing, intervention coverage, and impact information.

Preventing malaria through intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) remains a key strategy and appears in the Roll Back Malaria objectives and targets for 2015. The key indicator for IPTp remains the same: the proportion of women who received at least three or more doses of IPTp during ANC visits during their last pregnancy.

The report also summarizes the state of national IPTp policies. Country profiles state whether or not an IPTp policy is in place and, if so, when it was adopted. In addition, the report details the number of new IPTp policies adopted in 2013: a total of 37 new policies were adopted, 34 of which occurred in the African Region. Lastly, for each country the report recommends if policies should be adopted on either IPTp or seasonal malarial chemoprevention and summarizes the current antimalarial drug policies for IPTp.

Check out the full report!