BACKGROUND In malaria endemic areas, schoolchildren usually have asymptomatic malaria infections and consequently remain untreated. Therefore, intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in schoolchildren would be a plausible strategy in malaria stable transmission areas to prevent anaemia and malnutrition. However, in contrast to infancy and pregnancy, antimalaria intermit...

Combination therapy that includes artemisinin derivatives cures most falciparum malaria infections. Lowering transmission by reducing gametocyte infectivity would be an additional benefit. To examine the effect of such therapy on transmission, Gambian children with Plasmodium falciparum malaria were treated with standard regimens of chloroquine or pyrimethamine-sulfadoxine alone or in combinati...

BACKGROUND The World Health Organization recommends insecticidal bednets and intermittent preventive treatment to reduce malaria in pregnancy. Longitudinal data of malaria prevalence and pregnancy outcomes are valuable in gauging the impact of these antimalarial interventions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We recruited 8,131 women delivering in a single Malawian hospital over 9 years. We rec...

In this study, the effects of half, normal and double clinical doses of artesunate; artesunate/sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine; artesunate/amodiaquine and their combinants [sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine and amodiaquine] on the basal serum levels of testosterone, FSH, LH and prolactin of the guinea-pig were investigated. The results of this study showed that the agents caused significant decreases [P<0.05...

BACKGROUND Malaria control is difficult where there is intense year-round transmission of multiple plasmodium species, such as in Papua New Guinea. METHODS Between April 2005 and July 2007, we conducted an open-label, randomized, parallel-group study of conventional chloroquine-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and artesunate-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, and artemether-l...

The in vivo efficacies of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) nationally recommended antimalarial agents--chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine-were assessed in a randomized, comparative trial that involved 100 patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria who were followed for 42 days after starting treatment. Despite a shorter mean time to fever clearance associated wi...

We have exploited the recently developed ability to trans- fect the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum to investigate the role of polymorphisms in the enzyme dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS), identified in sulfadoxine-resistant field isolates. By using a truncated form of the dhps gene, specific mutations were introduced into the endogenous gene by allelic replacement such that they were und...

BACKGROUND Recent clinical trials in the Lao People's Democratic Republic have demonstrated that chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, which are national malaria treatment policy, are no longer effective in the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. METHODS A randomized comparison of 3 oral antimalarial combinations--chloroquine plus sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine versus ar...

the voltammetric behaviour of sulfadoxine (sdn) was studied at a glassy carbon electrode in 0.2 m phosphate buffer solutions using cyclic, differential-pulse (dpv) and square wave voltammetry (swv). the dependence of the current on ph, concentration, and scan rate was investigated to optimize the experimental conditions for the determination of sdn. the oxidation process was shown to be diffusi...

Plasmodium falciparum present in blood samples collected before and 3 weeks after treatment with either pyrimethamine-sulfadoxine or chlorproguanil-dapsone was analyzed for variants of the genes coding for the target enzymes of antifolate drugs, dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and dihydropteroate synthetase (DHPS). Fragments of the genes were amplified by polymerase chain reactions, and variants...