Monday, 8 November 2010

MALARIA: The effects of a pre-season treatment with effective antimalarials on subsequent malaria morbidity

The effects of a pre-season treatment with effective antimalarials on subsequent malaria morbidity in under five-year-old children living in high and seasonal malaria transmission area of Burkina Faso.
Ouédraogo A, Tiono AB, Diarra A, Nébié IO, Konaté AT, Sirima SB.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effects of pre-season treatment with single dose of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) or artemether-lumefantrine (AL) on subsequent malaria morbidity in under-fives.
METHODS: A cohort of 156 children was enrolled for longitudinal follow-up. Children received curative therapy with SP or AL, and a third group received no treatment. Participants were home-visited twice a week with blood smears taken from children with fever (axillary T° ≥ 37.5 °C) or history of fever. To assess the time to re-infection, a blood film was also systematically obtained from pre-treated children every 2 weeks.
RESULTS: The mean time to the first malaria infection was 36 days in the SP arm and 26 days in the AL arm (P=0.006). The incidence density of malaria infection was similar in both groups (86.5%vs. 92.3%, P=0.52). The mean time to the first malaria episode was 47 days in the SP arm and 32 days in the AL arm (P<0.001). The incidence of malaria episodes was significantly higher in the group pre-treated with AL (45.7 per 1000 child days-at-risk CI 95% [35-56]) than in the control group (10.7 per 1000 child days-at-risk CI 95% [7-15]); P<0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the radical clearance of parasitemia with AL may increase susceptibility to malaria infection and clinical malaria episodes.
Trop Med Int Health. 2010 Nov;15(11):1315-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2010.02618.x. Epub 2010 Sep 24.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20958888?dopt=Abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2010.02618.x/abstract

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