Children and mothers receive on the spot treatment for malaria during conduct of survey

The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), in collaboration with GFATM and WHO is currently entering data for the findings of the national malaria survey conducted during the period 19 October- 4 November2009. This survey was conducted in 11 states covering a population of more than 17 million and was divided into three components: a household-, household member’s-, and women and children questionnaire. Data was collected from health facilities and residential areas.

This survey aims to ensure that the most effective malaria control interventions are being implemented in the 11 states. These interventions include home based management, improving clinical and laboratory diagnosis, ensuring availability of anti-malarial drugs , distribution of bed nets and scaling up of the capacity of health workers. The findings of the survey will ultimately improve disease surveillance and epidemic management in the future.

This survey will provide the NMCP and other malaria partners with baseline information for the GFATM Round 7 malaria grant to scale up malaria interventions in northern Sudan. GFATM has contributed an amount of USD 485,000 to fund this survey.
During the conduct of the survey, free malaria diagnosis and on the spot treatment were provided for individuals susceptible to malaria especially pregnant women and children under five.

The NMCP and UNICEF have also distributed a total of 1,000,0000 bed nets in the states of South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Gadarif during November 2009.