Using monthly malaria pill visits to support children’s nutrition and health
Leveraging the seasonal malaria chemoprevention platform to address malaria and malnutrition
This project adds nutrition and other child-health services to the monthly malaria drug visits for young children in Burkina Faso to help them stay healthier during the rainy season.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R21 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California, San Francisco NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (San Francisco, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11240334 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If your child joins, community health workers will come to homes each month to give the standard seasonal malaria medicines (SP-AQ) and also deliver extra supports such as nutrition screening, counseling, or supplements. The team will follow children aged 3 to 59 months through the high-risk rainy months to see how the combined services affect malaria illness and growth. Health workers will record illnesses, weight and other child-health measures during and after the season. The work is a pilot to see whether adding these services to the established malaria-delivery visits is practical and helpful for families.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Young children aged 3 to 59 months (about 3 months to 5 years) who live in SMC-covered communities in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso are the intended participants.
Not a fit: Older children, adults, children outside the target geographic area, or children with medical reasons that prevent them from receiving SP-AQ are unlikely to benefit from participating.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the approach could lower malaria cases and improve nutrition and growth for young children during the high-risk season.
How similar studies have performed: Seasonal malaria chemoprevention is already proven to cut clinical malaria in children, and prior work suggests antimalarial treatment can help weight gain, but combining SMC with nutrition co-interventions is a relatively new, pilot approach.
Where this research is happening
San Francisco, United States
- University of California, San Francisco — San Francisco, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Oldenburg, Catherine Elizabeth — University of California, San Francisco
- Study coordinator: Oldenburg, Catherine Elizabeth
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.