The antischistosomal efficacies of artesunate-sulfamethoxypyrazine-pyrimethamine and artemether-lumefantrine administered as treatment for uncomplicated, Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Ann Trop Med Parasitol. 2008 Jan;102(1):39-44. doi: 10.1179/136485908X252214.

Abstract

Although artemisinin and its derivatives are widely used for the treatment of malaria, they also have antischistosomal activity. In a small study in eastern Sudan, the effects of the treatment of uncomplicated, Plasmodium falciparum malaria with artesunate-sulfamethoxypyrazine-pyrimethamine (AS-SMP) and artemether-lumefantrine (AT-LU) on co-infections with Schistosoma mansoni were therefore investigated. Faecal samples from 14 of the 306 patients screened on presentation, at the start of a clinical trial of antimalarial treatment, were found to contain Schistosoma mansoni eggs. For the treatment of their malaria, the 14 egg-positive cases, who were aged 6-40 years (mean = 13.7 years), were each subsequently treated with three tablets of a fixed combination of AS-SMP, with a 12-h (six patients) or 24-h interval (five patients) between each tablet, or with six doses of AT-LU given over 3 days. When checked 28 and 29 days after the initiation of treatment, all 14 patients were found stool-negative for schistosome eggs. These results indicate that AS-SMP and AT-LU are currently very effective treatments not only for uncomplicated, P. falciparum malaria but also for S. mansoni infections.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Animals
  • Antimalarials / therapeutic use*
  • Artemether, Lumefantrine Drug Combination
  • Artemisinins / therapeutic use
  • Artesunate
  • Child
  • Drug Combinations
  • Drug Therapy, Combination
  • Endemic Diseases
  • Ethanolamines / therapeutic use
  • Feces
  • Fluorenes / therapeutic use
  • Humans
  • Malaria, Falciparum / complications
  • Malaria, Falciparum / drug therapy*
  • Parasite Egg Count
  • Pyrimethamine / therapeutic use
  • Schistosoma mansoni / drug effects*
  • Schistosoma mansoni / parasitology
  • Schistosomiasis mansoni / complications
  • Schistosomiasis mansoni / drug therapy*
  • Schistosomicides / therapeutic use*
  • Sesquiterpenes / therapeutic use
  • Sudan
  • Sulfalene / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Antimalarials
  • Artemether, Lumefantrine Drug Combination
  • Artemisinins
  • Drug Combinations
  • Ethanolamines
  • Fluorenes
  • Schistosomicides
  • Sesquiterpenes
  • Artesunate
  • Sulfalene
  • Pyrimethamine