Launch of the MULTIPLY study (IPTi) in Sierra Leone

On 19 November 2021, the MULTIple doses of IPTi Proposal: a Lifesaving high Yield intervention (MULTIPLY) project was launched in Bombali, Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Intermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria in infants (IPTi) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is a safe, affordable (estimated at 0.75$ per intervention), and effective intervention recommended by WHO since 2010 to protect children from malaria. However, to date, IPTi-SP has only been implemented as part of the national health policy in one malaria-endemic country: Sierra Leone. The MULTIPLY project is an implementation research study that aims to deliver the IPTi intervention through the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and vitamin A supplementation in the first two years of a child’s life to prevent malaria in areas of moderate-to-high malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically, in Sierra Leone, and its introduction in two other countries, Mozambique and Togo.

Recruitment of 710 infants for the baseline House Hold Survey (HHS) was completed by mid-December 2021 in Sierra Leone. It is expected that the main trial intervention, i.e. the IPTi implementation study (with registry number NCT05085340), will start recruiting infants in Sierra Leone in February 2022.

Read the full article on the project website »
Further reading: article on El País (in Spanish) »