Despite the gained success in the control, malaria has remained a major
public health problem, affecting particularly children aged < 5 years in sub-
Saharan Africa. Most of the malaria transmissions occur during the rainy
season, a period that is relatively short. Intervention using antimalarial
chemotherapy in children during the transmission season has been shown to
prevent malaria-related morbidity and mortality. The World Health
Organization has recommended seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC)
using Sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) plus amodiaquine (AQ) in children
aged 3-59 months in areas with highly seasonal malaria transmission.
However, SP-AQ resistance is widespread in Tanzania. Therefore, we assessed
the effectiveness of Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PQ) as SMC for
control of malaria in children in Tanzania.
The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of SMC using dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PQ) when delivered using three approaches of door-to-door using CHWs, outreach using clinicians/nurses and village health posts and using selected CHWs on malaria morbidity among children aged 3-59 months in highly seasonal malaria transmission districts of Nanyumbu and Masasi.