Malaria can be a severe, potentially fatal disease (especially when caused by Plasmodium falciparum) and treatment should be initiated as soon as possible.
Patients who have severe P. falciparum malaria or who cannot take oral medications should be given the treatment by continuous intravenous infusion.
Most drugs used in treatment are active against the parasite forms in the blood (the form that causes disease) and include:
- chloroquine
- atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone®)
- artemether-lumefantrine (Coartem®)
- mefloquine (Lariam®)
- quinine
- quinidine
- doxycycline (used in combination with quinine)
- clindamycin (used in combination with quinine)
- artesunate (not licensed for use in the United States, but available through the CDC malaria hotline)
In addition, primaquine is active against the dormant parasite liver forms (hypnozoites) and prevents relapses. Primaquine should not be taken by pregnant women or by people who are deficient in G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase). Patients should not take primaquine until a screening test has excluded G6PD deficiency.
How to treat a patient with malaria depends on:
- The type (species) of the infecting parasite
- The area where the infection was acquired and its drug-resistance status
- The clinical status of the patient
- Any accompanying illness or condition
- Pregnancy
- Drug allergies, or other medications taken by the patient
If you have or suspect you have malaria, you should contact your doctor immediately.
Source: Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
if the patient has an allergy for anti-malarials including fansidar how we will treat that patient? second, for the last 12years i used microscopy for searching for malaria species in giemsa stain. this is microscopic method. now i saw reagent stripes for malaria diagnosis any way which is better staining and reagent stripe. thanks i am abdinoor from kenya
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Fansidar is no longer recommended for treatment of malaria – if a patient is allergic to Coartem or other ACTs, they should be given Malarone (atovaquone-proguanil), mefloquine, or doxycycline plus quinine. Thank you for your comment regarding diagnosis – I agree that reagent strip technology, which are used in rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, are proving to be very useful and convenient for diagnosis. – Claire
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