Effectiveness of quinine versus artemether-lumefantrine for treating uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Ugandan children: randomised trial
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Date
2009
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Bmj
Abstract
Objective To compare the effectiveness of oral quininewith that of artemether-lumefantrine in treatinguncomplicated malaria in children.Design Randomised, open label effectiveness study.Setting Outpatient clinic of Uganda’s national referral
hospital in Kampala.Participants 175 children aged 6 to 59 months withuncomplicated malaria.Interventions Participants were randomised to receiveoral quinine or artemether-lumefantrine administered bycare givers at home.Main outcome measures Primary outcomes wereparasitological cure rates after 28 days of follow-upunadjusted and adjusted by genotyping to distinguishrecrudescence from new infections. Secondary outcomeswere adherence to study drug, presence of gametocytes,
recovery of haemoglobin concentration from baseline at day 28, and safety profiles.Results Using survival analysis the cure rate unadjustedby genotyping was 96% for the artemether-lumefantrinegroup compared with 64% for the quinine group (hazardratio10.7, 95% confidence interval 3.3 to 35.5, P=0.001).In the quinine group 69% (18/26) of parasitologicalfailures were due to recrudescence compared with none inthe artemether-lumefantrine group. The mean adherenceto artemether-lumefantrine was 94.5% compared with85.4% to quinine (P=0.0008). Having adherence levels of80% or more was associated with a decreased risk oftreatment failure (0.44, 0.19 to 1.02, P=0.06). Adverseevents did not differ between the two groups.ConclusionsThe effectiveness of a seven day course ofquinine for the treatment of uncomplicated malariainUgandanchildren was significantly lower than that ofartemether-lumefantrine. These findings question theadvisability of the recommendation for quinine therapyfor uncomplicated malaria in Africa.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00540202.
Description
Keywords
Quinine, Artemether-lumefantrine, Treating, Falciparum malaria
Citation
Achan, J., Tibenderana, J. K., Kyabayinze, D., Mangen, F. W., Kamya, M. R., Dorsey, G., ... & Talisuna, A. O. (2009). Effectiveness of quinine versus artemether-lumefantrine for treating uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Ugandan children: randomised trial. Bmj, 339.doi:10.1136/bmj.b2763