The Bolgatanga Municipal Health Directorate has announced the commencement of its first round of the 2026 Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) campaign, an initiative aimed at preventing malaria among children aged 3 to 59 months across the municipality.
Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention is a public health strategy recommended by the World Health Organization for areas with highly seasonal malaria transmission. The intervention involves administering monthly courses of antimalarial medicines to eligible children during the peak malaria season to reduce illness, severe disease, and deaths. Ghana adopted the strategy in selected regions with seasonal malaria patterns, including parts of the north, where it has become an important component of child health services.
Speaking on the BlueWaves Breakfast Show, the Municipal Malaria Focal Person, *Mr. Alan Frank Jebuni, disclosed that the exercise will run from *Wednesday, June 24 to Saturday, June 27, 2026, with trained community health volunteers conducting house-to-house visits to administer the preventive medication.
Mr. Jebuni emphasized that the intervention is completely free of charge and appealed to parents and caregivers to cooperate with health workers by making their eligible children available when volunteers visit their homes.
“This exercise is free, and I urge parents and caregivers to support our community health volunteers by allowing their children to receive the medication when they visit your various households,” he said.
Also speaking on the programme, the Municipal Health Promotion Officer, Madam Francisca Adongo, encouraged caregivers to take the campaign seriously, noting that Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention remains one of the most effective interventions for protecting young children against malaria during the high-transmission season.
She further stressed the importance of ensuring that children living with disabilities are not left behind, urging families and communities to provide them with equal access to the life-saving preventive treatment.
The health officials highlighted the programme’s positive impact within the municipality. According to them, since the introduction of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention in 2017, no child between the ages of 3 and 59 months has died from malaria in the Bolgatanga Municipality. They believe the sustained implementation of the intervention, coupled with the cooperation of parents and caregivers, has played a significant role in achieving this outcome.
The Bolgatanga Municipal Health Directorate is therefore urging all households to embrace the campaign and support community health volunteers to ensure that every eligible child receives the preventive medication. Health authorities remain optimistic that continued participation will help sustain the progress made in reducing malaria-related illness and deaths among children in the municipality.
If you plan to publish this as a news article, I can also help add quotes, context on the medicines used in SMC, and local malaria statistics to make it even more comprehensive.
Source:MyBlueWavesonlin.com | Maurice Duncan | Bolgatanga
