There are two major strains of malaria effecting humans, P. vivax and P. falciparum. Although attention focuses on the more virulent P. falciparum, vivax malaria causes a huge amount of illness in tropical countries especially for travelers. Vivax malaria is becoming increasingly resistant to standard treatments.
In collaboration with partners at the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the Menzies School of Health Research (MSHR) team conducted a study where they compared two new treatments for malaria. Both contained a combination of drug based on a Chinese herbal extract with a longer acting antimalarial drug.
The researchers found that both treatments provided initial cure from disease. However, those receiving a treatment which stayed in the blood stream for longer were three times less likely to have another episode of malaria within 42 days and were less likely to be anemic.
“This study is one of the first to highlight the best treatment of drug resistant strains of vivax malaria found in the Asia pacific region,” said MSHR scientist, Dr Ric Price.
“It also provides evidence that longer acting drugs can prevent patients, who remain at risk of further infections, from getting sick again within 6 weeks. This “post treatment prophylaxis” is similar to the approach of giving travelers regular medication to protect them from infection, but can be applied opportunistically to people at high risk of infection in poor tropical communities,” he added.
A concern is that the resistance would emerge quickly to the long acting drug. However, the team believes that combining the two drugs could prevent this from happening.