Drug combination could curb malaria


The malarial mosquito - new therapy could curb the disease

By Ania Lichtarowicz of BBC Science

A new combination of drugs could slow down the spread of malaria in
sub-Saharan Africa, according to an article in the medical journal The Lancet.

The treatment, which involves a combination of an already used drug and a
newer medication, could also mean the malaria parasites will be less likely to
become resistant to the treatment - something that in the long term would not
only save lives but also vast amounts of money.

Resistance to cheap anti-malarial drugs is growing in sub-Saharan Africa and
as a result more and more children are dying from the disease.

The biggest problem with treating the condition is that there is only a
handful of effective yet cheap drugs available.

Once the malaria parasite becomes resistant to chloroquine - the first-line
treatment - then doctors have only one other drug to treat the disease.

Promising results

The team of researchers from the Medical Research Council Laboratories in
Gambia treated 600 children with malaria.

They used the one commonly-used drug - pyrimethamine-sulphadoxine - and a
newer medication called artesunate.

Following just one day of treatment more than half of the children given two
drugs were free from infection - considerably more than those given only the
original drug.

Symptoms of the disease also diminished much quicker in children who had
received the combination treatment.

The researchers also believe that the low number of parasites in the blood
after the combined treatment could lower the chance of drug resistant strains
emerging - meaning the cheaper drugs would be effective for longer.

The World Health Organisation is currently running 12 trials throughout Africa
to see how effective this new combination treatment is in the fight against
malaria.

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