In-vitro drug sensitivity tests were performed on Philippine isolates of Plasmodium falciparum between 1991 and 1993, using the radioisotope microdilution method. The success of the tests varied significantly with the level of parasitaemia, the source of the strains, the period that elapsed before culturing, and the detectable concentrations of antimalarials in the blood. There was a significan...

Current malaria treatments are based on the use of artemisinin based combinations. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the combination of pyrimethamine/sulfadoxine/artesunate is the first line of treatment of uncomplicated malaria, while lumefantrine/artemether (Coartem) is used as a second option. The treatment of severe malaria rests on the use of quinine or artesunate. In Saudi Arabia, most case...

Emergence of artemisinin resistance in Cambodia highlights the importance of characterizing resistance to this class of drugs. Previously, intermediate levels of resistance in Plasmodium falciparum were generated in vitro for artelinic acid (AL) and artemisinin (QHS). Here we expanded on earlier selection efforts to produce levels of clinically relevant concentrations, and the resulting lines w...

Fully synthetic endoperoxide antimalarials, namely, OZ277 (RBx11160; also known as arterolane) and OZ439 (artefenomel), have been approved for marketing or are currently in clinical development. We undertook an analysis of the kinetics of the in vitro responses of Plasmodium falciparum to the new ozonide antimalarials. For these studies we used a K13 mutant (artemisinin resistant) isolate from ...

Efforts have been intensified to search for more effective antimalarial agents because of the observed failure of some artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) treatments of malaria in Ghana. Xylopic acid, a pure compound isolated from the fruits of the Xylopia aethiopica, was investigated to establish its attributable prophylactic, curative antimalarial, and antipyretic properties. The anti...

An estimated 627,000 malaria deaths occurred in 2012, mostly in African children and many of them preventable with prompt diagnosis and treatment [1]. Access to diagnosis remains poor—in half of endemic African countries, over 80% of malaria treatments are applied without diagnostic testing [2]. Improving diagnosis and treatment of malaria will improve treatment outcomes, rationalize health car...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate treatment-seeking behaviour, financial impact and time lost due to malaria events, in southern Mozambique and eastern South Africa. METHODS In-depth household surveys (828 in Mozambique and 827 in South Africa) were analysed. An asset index was calculated using principal component analysis to allow comparison across socio-economic groups. Direct costs of seeking care an...

The plant Artemisia annua L. (Asteraceae) is listed in the Chinese pharmacopoeia as a remedy for various fevers including malaria, and contains the well-established antimalarial compound artemisinin. In this study, a hybrid form of A. annua was successfully cultivated in Central Africa. The aerial parts of the plant contained 0.63-0.70% artemisinin per dry weight, and approximately 40% of this ...

The kelch 13 (K13) propeller gene is associated with artemisinin resistance. In a previous work, there were no mutations found in 138 Plasmodium falciparum isolates collected in 2012 and 2013 from patients residing in Dakar, Senegal (M. Torrentino-Madamet et al., Malar J 13:472, 2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-13-472). However, the N554H, Q613H, and V637I mutations were identified in ...

BACKGROUND  Community health workers (CHWs) are members of a community who are chosen by their communities as first-line, volunteer health workers. The time they spend providing healthcare and the value of this time are often not evaluated. Our aim was to quantify the time CHWs spent on providing healthcare before and during the implementation of an integrated program of diagnosis and treatment...