Surveillance of the efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine and artesunate-amodiaquine for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum among children under five in Togo, 2005-2009

• Published in: Malaria Journal
• Main Authors: Dorkenoo Monique A, Barrette Amy, Agbo Yao M, Bogreau Hervé, Kutoati Séenam, Sodahlon Yao K, Morgah Kodjo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2012
• Subjects: Malaria; Plasmodium falciparum; Therapeutic efficacy; Artemisinin-based combination; Togo; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-338; https://doaj.org/article/3b53beb605b24ea1a1169a947f22a270

Abstract Background Malaria remains a major public health problem in Togo. The national malaria control programme in Togo changed the anti-malarial treatment policy from monotherapy to artemisinin combination therapy in 2004. This study reports the results of therapeutic efficacy studies conducted on artemether-lumefantrine and artesunate-amodiaquine for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Togo, between 2005 and 2009. Methods Children between 6 and 59 months of age, who were symptomatically infected with P. falciparum, were treated with either artemether-lumefantrine or artesunate-amodiaquine. The primary end-point was the 28-day cure rate, PCR-corrected for reinfection and recrudescence. Studies were conducted according to the standardized WHO protocol for the assessment of the efficacy of anti-malarial treatment. Differences between categorical data were compared using the chi-square test or the Fisher’s exact test where cell counts were ≤ 5. Differences in continuous data were compared using a t -test. Results A total of 16 studies were conducted in five sentinel sites, with 459, 505 and 332 children included in 2005, 2007 and 2009, respectively. The PCR-corrected 28-day cure rates using the per-protocol analysis were between 96%-100% for artemether-lumefantrine and 94%-100% for artesunate-amodiaquine. Conclusions Both formulations of artemisinin-based combination therapy were effective over time and no severe adverse events related to the treatment were reported during the studies.