CBC News
A new study says a different malaria drug could save tens of thousands of adult lives every year, especially in Asia.
A study reported in this week's edition of The Lancet said that artesunate is better at saving lives than the standard medication, quinine. It said artesunate reduces the chance of death from malaria by 35 percent.
Artesunate is derived from a traditional herb that has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years to treat fever. It works more quickly, is easier to use and has fewer side effects. But it has been unclear whether it was any better at preventing death.
In the study, a team led by Dr. Nick White at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand, compared the two drugs in 1,461 adults with severe malaria who are being treated at hospitals in Bangladesh, Indonesia, India and Myanmar.
Half the patients were given intravenous artesunate, while the others were treated with quinine.
The researchers found that 22 percent of the patients on quinine died from their malaria, but only 15 percent of the patients getting artesunate died.
The World Health Organization said the findings will prompt a change in its guidelines on the treatment of adults with severe malaria in areas like Southeast Asia and South America, locations where the parasite has shown resistance to quinine.
In such locations, switching to artesunate could save the lives of tens of thousands of the estimated 1 million people who die from malaria every year.
However, most of the world's malaria deaths occur in Africa, where it is mostly children who are affected. Whether artesunate would be better than quinine in that situation remains unclear.
The disease progresses differently in children and the drug may work differently in them, so until studies prove artesunate is better than quinine in children, the old drug will remain the treatment of choice for children suffering from malaria.
Quinine is cheaper and more easily available, and without proof of substantial superiority of artesunate, it is likely that quinine will remain the drug of choice for treating severe malaria in Africa for some time.
8 comments:
You're so right Jenny....I swear that pharmaceuticals must be the biggest money maker in the world. I'll be that there exists a cure for aids...cancer...but how would they make any MONEY if they cured everything? they wouldnt. It's convtroversy I tell you. CONTROVERSY!!! lol
You know, I wouldn't worry too much about the pharmaceuticals curing everything, because they can just invent new diseases as they come up with drugs. Had anyone heard of ADD or ADHD before they started marketing Ritalin? I hadn't.
Besides I hear that the fastest growing pharmaceutical market is for pet anti-depressants. Probably because 1st world pets have more purchasing power than humans in the 3rd world.
I'm still chuckling about those funny names. Hugh? Hugh who? Hugh Jass that is. Is there a feminine version Chris and I could use around here?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? A girl version for Hugh Jass?
Actually girl or boy, those names are so funny, can anyone think of any more of them?
I met a woman once who had a hypenated last name. her maiden name was Moystan. her husband's name was Cumming. no joke.
Paul, am I going to see you this weekend? Where are you?
Also, this is the reason I'd never change my name if I was getting married.
http://www.hendess.net/london.htm
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