PMID: 15217738Jun 26, 2004Paper

Malaria diagnosis and treatment in a rural Health Centre in Mayotte (Comoro archipelago, 2002)

Santé : cahiers d'étude et de recherches francophones
J F Lepere, A Macarry

Abstract

With a marked increase in both morbidity and mortality, as well as a high level of resistance to chloroquine (CQ), malaria is once again a major public health problem in Mayotte, a French overseas territory in the Comoro archipelago. The object of this study is to assess the contribution in the field of two new antimalarial fight steps taken in 2001-2002: The use of the rapid diagnostic test (RDT) for malaria OptiMAL in the rural health centres and the drop of the CQ alone for the simultaneous administration of CQ and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) as the first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria. All 581 suspected malaria attacks, diagnosed by RDT during the year 2002 in a rural health centre of the island, were registered. The good positive predictive value of the RDT used (97.2%) calculated during the study has permitted an important reduction of the rate of wrongly administer antimalarial treatment. Before RDT was used, through lack of emergency microscopic diagnosis, the antimalarial treatment was presumptive in the isolated health centres and that rate was superior to 90%. It is now below 3%. Before the introduction of the new protocol, in the middle of the year 2002, the rate of therapeutic failures with CQ used alo...Continue Reading

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Antimalarial Agents (ASM)

Antimalarial agents, also known as antimalarials, are designed to prevent or cure malaria. Discover the latest research on antimalarial agents here.

Antimalarial Agents

Antimalarial agents, also known as antimalarials, are designed to prevent or cure malaria. Discover the latest research on antimalarial agents here.