Medicines for Malaria Venture in collaboration with UNICEF and ISGlobal is organizing a side event on adolescent girls and malaria as part of the upcoming Women and Girls’ summit. 

Malaria, a disease that claimed about 405 000 lives in 2018, remains an important, but unrecognized cause of death in adolescent girls. Malaria accounts for 7.4 % of all female adolescent deaths globally. In 2016, malaria was the fifth leading cause of death among adolescent girls aged 10-14 and caused 14.1 percent of deaths in this age group. 

Adolescent girls face socio-cultural and policy barriers that prevent them from accessing malaria prevention and treatment services. Robust data on malaria and adolescent girls, which has been limited so far, is needed to create effective policies and programmes and reduce the burden of malaria in this population.

Sustainable Development Goal 3.3 aims to end AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. To achieve this goal amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic, which creates additional barriers in accessing health services, global and country-level leaders must prioritize adolescent girls while building solid evidence to ensure this group receives the malaria prevention and treatment services they need.

Register for the event here.