This blog post was written by Professor Kathryn Maitland, Professor of Paediatric Tropical Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Centre of African Research and Engagement at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London. She leads the SMAART Consortium (Severe Malaria Africa: A consortium for Research and Trials).
In much of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), malaria remains a key cause of paediatric hospital admission, and makes a substantial contribution to under 5-year mortality, estimated at 600,000 annually.
Despite implementing currently effective, fast-acting artemisinin-based combination therapies, the multisite SMAART observational study has shown that inpatient mortality for paediatric severe malaria (excluding hyperparasitaemia with no additional severity features) remains unacceptably high at ~8%.