La. Salako et al., ARTEMETHER IN MODERATELY SEVERE AND CEREBRAL MALARIA IN NIGERIAN CHILDREN, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 88, 1994, pp. 13-15
Citations number
5
Categorie Soggetti
Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath","Tropical Medicine
Intramuscular artemether was compared with intramuscular sulfadoxine-p
yrimethamine in Nigerian children with moderately severe malaria requi
ring parenteral therapy. Artemether produced significantly shorter par
asite and fever clearance times but a higher parasite recrudescence ra
te than sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. There was no significant difference
in their initial parasitological cure rates-100% for artemether, 98%
for sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. In a separate study intramuscular artem
ether was compared with intravenous quinine in children with cerebral
malaria. There was no significant difference between the 2 drugs in pa
rasite and fever clearance times, time to regain consciousness, or rec
rudescence rate. There was an overall mortality of 16.7%, with 12% in
the artemether group and 21% in the quinine group. Artemether was well
tolerated. There was no abnormal change in haematological and biochem
ical features monitored and there was no adverse clinical reaction. Th
ese results show that artemether is a potentially useful drug for mode
rate and severe malaria and its place in the chemotherapy of malaria d
eserves further study.