Mefloquine in the treatment of falciparum malaria during pregnancy in Eastern Sudan

ABSTRACT

To test the efficacy and toxicity of mefloquine therapy both on expectant mothers and the outcome of their pregnancies. We performed a prospective non-comparative clinical trial in New Halfa Teaching Hospital, Eastern Sudan, during the period October 1998 to June 2001. Pregnant Sudanese women were given mefloquine 25 mg/kg for treatment of falciparum malaria following chloroquine failure. The women were followed every 2 weeks in the antenatal clinic until delivery. The babies were followed until the age of one year. Forty pregnant women were enrolled in the second and third trimesters. Itching which occurred in 17.5% and nausea which occurred in 35% were the cardinal side effects of the patients. Recrudescence or re-infection occurred on day 14 in one patient [2.5%]. One patient that received mefloquine at 34 weeks gestational age delivered low birth weight [2.1 kg] at 39 weeks gestational age. One child died at the age of 7 months due to unexplained febrile illness. There was no abortion, no stillbirth and no congenital abnormality in the newborn children and no maternal death. This relatively small study reported that mefloquine could be used safely for the treatment of malaria in the second and third trimester of pregnancy and a larger study is recommended