WHO Study in Tanzania Drastically Cuts Infant Malaria Incidence
A study recently published in The Lancet found that researchers in Tanzania were able to cut malaria incidence by two-thirds through a combination of anti-malarial drugs and iron supplements.
Malaria is especially lethal in infants and children because the malaria parasite destroys the red blood cells creating a life-threatening anemia.
Researchers with the World Health Organizations gave anti-malarial drugs and iron supplements to more than 700 infants as a part of their routine vaccinations. In that study group, malaria infections were cut by two-thirds, and anemia cases were halved.
Researchers have been reticent to use anti-malarial drugs preventively out of concerns that it might accelerate the rise of drug-resistant strains of the parasite. Dr. Pedro Alonso, who led the research project, said that if given as part of standard infant vaccinations, however, many of the concerns about using anti-malarials preventively could be addressed and the result would likely be slowing the rate at which drug-resistant forms of malaria are emerging.
The next step for WHO is larger trials of the treatment combination to test its safety and efficacy.
Source:
Tanzania baby malaria halved. The BBC, May 11, 2001.
The WHO Study in Tanzania Drastically Cuts Infant Malaria Incidence by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Tags: Malaria