Malaria combination treatment regimens reviewed
The ideal regimen for the treatment of malaria has yet to be discovered, according to a new review of available agents. In the meantime, mefloquine plus artesunate and clindamycin plus quinine are among the best options currently available, the authors state.
They add that dihydroartemisinin plus piperaquine and fosmidomycin plus
clindamycin are promising candidates for use in the future.
Peter Gottfried Kremsner from the University of Tübingen, Germany,
and Sanjeev Krishna, Saint George’s Hospital Medical School, London,
write that multi-drug resistance has rendered monotherapy for malaria
useless in most parts of the world and call for new antimalarial regimens.
They describe the ideal antimalarial combination as safe and well tolerated,
with good rates of efficacy with a single dose. The drugs should be stable,
available in oral, rectal and parenteral forms and cheap (maximum €2
per adult and €1 per child).
Professor Kremsner and Professor Krishna say: “Until better regimens
become available there are enormous demands on policy makers to choose
between existing combinations, many of which have not been sufficiently
studied for informed judgements to be made.” (Lancet 2004;364:285). |
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