Early treatment failure during treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria with atovaquone-proguanil in the Republic of Ivory Coast

• Published in: Malaria Journal
• Main Authors: Wurtz Nathalie, Pascual Aurélie, Marin-Jauffre Adeline, Bouchiba Housem, Benoit Nicolas, Desbordes Marc, Martelloni Maryse, de Santi Vincent, Richa Georges, Taudon Nicolas, Pradines Bruno, Briolant Sébastien
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2012
• Subjects: Malaria; Plasmodium falciparum; Malarone®; Atovaquone-proguanil; Cytochrome b; Resistance; Clinical failure; in vitro; Anti-malarial drug; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-146; https://doaj.org/article/ece5613526434581b5998913a8cc0ba2

Abstract The increased spread of drug-resistant malaria highlights the need for alternative drugs for treatment and chemoprophylaxis. The combination of atovaquone‐proguanil (Malarone®) has shown high efficacy against Plasmodium falciparum with only mild side-effects. Treatment failures have been attributed to suboptimal dosages or to parasite resistance resulting from a point mutation in the cytochrome b gene. In this paper, a case of early treatment failure was reported in a patient treated with atovaquone-proguanil; this failure was not associated with a mutation in the parasite cytochrome b gene, with impaired drug bioavailability, or with re-infection.