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WHO releases new guidelines for treatment of malaria
The World Health Organization has released new guidelines for the treatment of malaria.
Malaria patient
WHO says the guidelines, which place emphasis on testing before treating, are aimed at reducing resistance to newly developed drugs for the treatment of malaria. Patrick Maigua reports from Geneva.
According to the World Health Organization, only about 22 per cent of suspected malaria cases are tested in Africa. WHO says this often leads to people without the disease being put on malaria treatment. Dr Robert Newman from the WHO Global Malaria Programme says the development of the artemisinin-based drugs has transformed the treatment of malaria, but if not used properly the medicine could become ineffective. Dr Newman says WHO is now recommending the use of Rapid Diagnostic Tests, which can reliably demonstrate the presence, or absence of malaria parasites in the blood. He says the tests can be performed at all levels of the health system, including community settings.
Although such testing is routine in many parts of the world, it is not in others. It will take time to scale up diagnostic services and it will require significant funding not only to purchase the kits but also to ensure there is adequate training supervision and community education, but in the end it will be worth it. Not only will we do a better job of treating patients, but we will be helping prevent the potential spread of resistance to artemisinin, our most important class of medicines for treating malaria.
WHO has also published the first ever guidelines on the procurement of artemisinin-based anti- malarial medicines. The manual contains a checklist to guide the selection and procurement of safe and effective anti- malarial medicines. WHO says pharmaceutical markets in malaria endemic countries are often unregulated leading to the purchase of poor-quality medicines that affect the health and lives of patients, damage the credibility of health services and promote the development of drug resistant malaria parasites. Patrick Maigua UN Radio Geneva
