sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine

This study resulted in notifications to all state drug controllers in India to withdraw the oral artemisinin formulations from the market. In 2010, artesunate + sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine became the universal first-line treatment for confirmed Plasmodium falciparum malaria and was deployed at full scale.

There is a high prevalence of dhfr triple mutant with some dhps point mutations in Gabon, in line with treatment failures observed, and molecular markers of SP resistance should be closely monitored.

Commentary on:
Gosling RD, Gesase S, Mosha JF, et al . Protective efficacy and safety of three antimalarial regimens for intermittent preventive treatment for malaria in infants: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet 2009;374:1521–32.

Conducted in 2004-2006, the results of this study give updated information about anti-malarials efficacy at the time of policy change to ACT treatment (AQ used in combination with artesunate and SP used in IPT for pregnant women.

A paper that addresses the issue of possible selection of drug resistant parasites in the context of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in infants. Importantly, this study evaluates the impact of the intervention at community level, in a context of a large scale implementation.