Drug resistant falciparum malaria and the use of artesunate-based combinations : focus on clinical trials sponsored by TDR

Abstract

Antimalarial drug resistance has now become a serious global challenge and is the principal reasonfor the decline in antimalarial drug efficacy. Malaria endemic countries need inexpensive and efficaciousdrugs. Preserving the life spans of antimalarial drugs is a key part of the strategy for rollingback malaria. Artemisinin-based combinations offer a new and potentially highly effective way tocounter drug resistance. Clinical trials conducted in African children have attested to the good tolerabilityof oral artesunate when combined with standard antimalarial drugs. The cure rates of thedifferent combinations were generally dependent on the degree of resistance to the companiondrug. They were high for amodiaquine-artesunate, variable for sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine-artesunate,and poor for chloroquine-artesunate.

Keywords

• Antimalarial drug resistance
• artemisinin
• fever clearance
• parasite clearance