Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Gabonese children

✍ Scribed by P. Deloron; J. Mayombo; A. Le Cardinal; J. Mezui-Me-Ndong; C. Bruzi-Baert; F. Lekoulou; N. Elissa

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 431 KB
• Volume: 94
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9203
• DOI: 10.1016/s0035-9203(00)90272-4

✦ Synopsis

Chloroquine can no longer be recommended as the first-line treatment for falciparum malaria in several parts of Africa, given the increasing resistance of Plasmodium falcipanrm to this drug. The sulfadoxinepyrimethamine combination (SP) is obviously an alternative candidate, that has already been selected as first-line antimalarial treatment by a few African countries. However, the extent of resistance to SP appears to be highly variable within Africa. Therefore, we investigated the efficacy of SP to treat uncomplicated malaria attacks in children from south-east Gabon. Sixty-six children presenting with a I? falciparum malaria attack were given a standard regimen of SP, and were followed at Days 3,7, 14, and 2 1. No RI11 response was observed, but relatively high prevalences of RI1 (182%) and RI (12.1%) were present. Moreover, analysis ofthe clinical outcome according to CDC criteria showed that initial clinical response was lacking in 8.5 % of children, and that clinical failure occurred in 9.1%.