About 150,000 children are to benefit from the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) programme, which is being implemented in the Upper West Region for the first time.

The SMC programme targets children within the age bracket of three to 59 months for three to four months duration, during the highest malaria transmission point which is the rainy season.

Mr James Frimpong, Programme Officer, National Malaria Control Programme, who made this known during a Regional Stakeholder Sensitisation meeting on SMC said the intervention has been tested and found to be effective, safe and acceptable and could contribute to reduce malaria burden by 70-85 per cent in the region.

He said the programme is being implemented in the Region because it is one of the regions with the highest malaria prevalence rate among children between six and 59 months.

Mr Frimpong noted that the objective of the project is to ensure that 80 per cent of the target group receive SMC intervention within the period of implementation, which is July to August.

It would also look at building capacity at community and all levels of care on SMC implementation, and to implement the evaluation report on the impact of the programme to stakeholders.

The Programme Officer appealed to the media to help educate the people in the region to make it a big success.