Global Health NOW: Pregnancy and Malaria
Clara Menéndez, director of the Maternal, Child and Reproductive Health Initiative, ISGlobal, Barcelona Institute for Global Health and a WHO consultant, highlights the need to include the high-risk groups of pregnant women and infants in malaria research. “…The malaria research agenda needs to consider the particular needs of pregnant women and women of reproductive age through the development of more efficacious but also safe drugs for pregnancy, as well as improving diagnostic tests that can be used as point of care in routine antenatal care” (4/23).

UNICEF Connect: Protecting pregnant women from malaria — a missed “quick win”
Valentina Buj, a global malaria adviser at UNICEF, discusses the success of Intermittent Preventive Treatment during pregnancy (IPTp) and the challenges of providing the four-dose regimen to pregnant women in Africa. “…When countries are asked what their biggest obstacles are, their responses are nearly unanimous — the problems are stock-outs of drugs, lack of funding to retrain workers, and financial barriers preventing women from attending [antenatal care] visits…” (4/21).