Antischistosomal efficacy of artesunate combination therapies administered as curative treatments for malaria attacks

Artesunate is a highly effective antimalarial and there is some evidence that it is also active against schistosome infections. We therefore investigated whether treatment with artesunate of acute malaria in Senegalese children had an impact on their level of infection with Schistosoma haematobium....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2007-02, Vol.101 (2), p.113-116
Main Authors: Boulanger, Denis, Dieng, Yemou, Cisse, Badara, Remoue, Franck, Capuano, Frederic, Dieme, Jean-Louis, Ndiaye, Tofene, Sokhna, Cheikh, Trape, Jean-François, Greenwood, Brian, Simondon, Francois
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amodiaquine - therapeutic use
Animals
Anthelmintics - therapeutic use
Antimalarials - therapeutic use
Artemisinin-based combination therapy
Artemisinins - therapeutic use
Artesunate
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child, Preschool
Diseases caused by trematodes
Drug Combinations
Drug Therapy, Combination
Helminthic diseases
Human health and pathology
Human protozoal diseases
Humans
Infant
Infectious diseases
Life Sciences
Malaria
Malaria - complications
Malaria - drug therapy
Medical sciences
Parasitic diseases
Pilot Projects
Plasmodium falciparum
Protozoal diseases
Pyrimethamine - therapeutic use
Schistosoma haematobium
Schistosomiases
Schistosomiasis haematobia - complications
Schistosomiasis haematobia - drug therapy
Senegal
Sesquiterpenes - therapeutic use
Sulfadoxine - therapeutic use
Treatment Outcome
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Artesunate is a highly effective antimalarial and there is some evidence that it is also active against schistosome infections. We therefore investigated whether treatment with artesunate of acute malaria in Senegalese children had an impact on their level of infection with Schistosoma haematobium. Twenty-seven children who were entered into a clinical trial of antimalaria treatment were excreting S. haematobium eggs in their urine on the day of treatment. Fifteen children received a combination of a single dose of sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine together with three daily doses of artesunate (4 mg/kg); the remaining 12 children received three daily doses of amodiaquine and artesunate. The overall cure rate and reduction in the mean number of excreted eggs at 28 days post treatment were 92.6% and 94.5%, respectively. Our findings indicate that artesunate, in addition to being a very effective treatment for uncomplicated malaria, can also sharply reduce the S. haematobium loads harboured by pre-school African children.
ISSN:0035-9203
1878-3503
DOI:10.1016/j.trstmh.2006.03.003