This archive report was first published on 30 July 2019.
Malaria Drugs Fail to Deliver in Malnourished Children ¶
Published on July 30, 2019, a study published in the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Journal has found that severely malnourished children may not be getting the full benefits of malaria drugs.
According to the study, which was conducted in Mali and Niger, severely malnourished children had an average of 19 percent less exposure to the anti-malaria drug artemether-lumefantrine (coartem) compared to other children.
The study, led by Prof Joel Tarning, found that this reduced exposure led to an increased risk of drug failure and the acquisition of new malaria infections during the follow-up period.
Researchers note that malnourished children are more severely affected by malaria and have lower levels of antimalarial drugs in their bodies after standard treatment.
Dr Rebecca Grais, a Research Director at Médecins Sans Frontières, emphasized the importance of improving treatment protocols for this vulnerable group of children.
Dr Palang Chotsiri, a researcher at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, added that further studies are still required to investigate optimised dosing regimens to improve antimalarial treatments in malnourished children.
