A randomized, controlled trial of artemisinin-piperaquine vs dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine phosphate in treatment of falciparum malaria / 中国结合医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>The study aimed to evaluate and compare the efficacy and safety of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine phosphate (Artekin) and artemisinin-piperaquine (Artequick) in the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 103 uncomplicated falciparum malaria patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to two groups: 52 cases in the Artequick group, and 51 cases in the Artekin group. The patients in the Artequick group were administered with Artequick, twice in 24 h, whereas the patients in the Artekin group were given Artekin 4 times in 2 days. The mean parasite clearance time, mean fever clearance time, 28-day cure rate and parasite recrudescence rates of the two groups were then compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The mean parasite clearance time and the mean fever clearance time were 43.2+/-13.9 h and 24.7+/-9.9 h, in the Artequick group, and 36.5+/-17.1 h and 22.7+/-11.2 h, in the Artekin group. In both groups the 28-day cure rate was 100%, and the parasite recrudescence rate was 0.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Both medicines had high cure rates, low recrudescence rates, and no serious adverse reactions. The administration of Artequick, however, was more convenient and lower incidence of gastrointestinal side effects than that of Artekin, so as to increase the efficacy in the malaria population.</p>

Quality of malaria diagnosis and treatment at hospital levels in central highland of Vietnam (2000 - 2002)

The supervision on the quality of malaria diagnosis and treatment was carried out at 7 provincial and central hospitals, 18 distric hospital in the Central and Highland area, from 2000 to 2002. The answer of the results of examination of malaria parasite available before 2 hours was 73.7%; no blood examination for malaria parasite was 6.0%, the rate of mistakes in parasitic examination was 6.1%. Diagnosis of malaria cases taken before 2 hours was 82.9% and correct diagnosis of malaria cases was 80.1%. The treatment with specific antimalarial drugs occupied 69.7%. Most of clinical malaria cases were treated by combination of some specific antimalarial drugs and antibiotic. The provincial and central hospitals have proper facilities and anti-malaria drugs to for treatment of all forms of malaria. The district hospitals have not yet got sufficient facilities for emergency aid and treatment of severe and complicated malaria such as severe complications, severe anaemia malaria