School-aged children based seasonal malaria chemoprevention using artesunate-amodiaquine in Mali

Malaria is still a public health problem in Africa. Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) is an efficient control strategy recommended by WHO that targets children under five year old living in areas of seasonal malaria transmission. SMC uses the combination amodiaquine (AQ) – sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP). However SP selects rapidly drug resistant parasites. And malaria burden may increase in older children where SMC is implemented. We initiated a pilot study to assess an alternative approach to SMC in older children in Mali