The malaria-control community has long recommended a “package” of interventions for African settings for both reduction in transmission through vector control and prevention and treatment of infection and disease with appropriate anti malarial drugs. In malaria-endemic countries in Africa, malaria during pregnancy has a major impact on both the woman’s health and the newborn’s birth weight, particularly in the first and second pregnancies. Strategies to control malaria in pregnant African women follow this package approach and rely on transmission prevention (especially with insecticide-treated bed nets [ITNs]), case management of malaria illness (a relatively uncommon event in these women, who have substantial acquired immunity), and intermittent preventive therapy of malaria during pregnancy (IPTp) to prevent the adverse consequence of usually asymptomatic placental infections.

Feiko O. ter Kuile and Richard W. Steketee ; 2007  DOI: 10.1086/522233