antimalarial drugs : Impact Malaria: paludisme, information for the public and healthcare professionals

It recurs regularly, every 48 hours for Plasmodium falciparum malignant tertian fever for Plasmodium vivax and for Plasmodium ovale non-malignant tertian fevers and every 72 hours for Plasmodium malariae quartan fever, after several cycles, the Plasmodia present in the blood may give rise to sexual forms whose development can only take place in the disease-carrying mosquito, the anopheles. Only the females of this insect bite humans, this \'\' blood meal\'\' is always nocturnal. antimalarial drugs As they ingurgitate microscopic quantities of blood, the anophelines also take in Plasmodia which multiply in the insect, after a few weeks these plasmodia give rise to infesting forms which will accumulate in the mosquito\'s saliva glands.

Transmission to another subject takes place when the mosquito takes another blood meal, in the human body, the Plasmodia begin to multiply intensely in the liver. This phase is only transitory there is no \'\'cycle\'\' as such and does not cause any symptoms, the parasites then enter the blood.
There they perform the cycle we have already described, which is responsible for the various symptoms of malaria, malaria prophylaxis prevention is based on two types of measure, the preventive treatment taking of certain drugs and a set of precautions the aim of which is to limit the risks of infection, it has been complicated by the resistance to different antimalarial drugs, with a variable frequency and intensity depending on areas of transmission. According to a classification proposed by the WHO, these areas are classified in 3 categories, in relation to the frequency and the importance of the resistance to the antimalarial treatments, in the areas of partial resistance and especially total resistance groups II and III, drug combinations of two antimalarial molecules are generally used. An information database specially dedicated to healthcare professionals and general public, scientific news and events related to malaria, informations in real time about the fight against malaria, training tools for healthcare professionals. The type of chemoprophylaxis is therefore linked to the existence locally of resistance to various antimalarial drugs, the length and conditions of the stay also play a role in large hotels or in out-of-the-way places, the age of patients a large number of antimalarial drugs are contra-indicated for young children, the existence of an eventual pregnancy, etc.

The prescription of drugs therefore is subjected to a personalized consultation, by specialist doctors, and excludes any \'\' multi-purpose formula \'\', in any event, it needs to be stressed that whatever type of chemoprophylaxis is prescribed, there is no guarantee of an infallible protection against malaria. Malaria can be treated using different antimalarial drugs, which possess different mechanisms of action, unfortunately, over the years and due partly to incorrect use of the drugs in the field, resistance to antimalarial drugs has appeared, making certain treatments ineffective. Fortunately, new molecules have been discovered and developed by researchers and the pharmaceutical industry, the choice of treatment is based on the frequency of this resistance in the relevant area, and on the extent of any undesirable side effects caused by certain antimalarial drugs. antimalarial drugs To prevent the emergence of resistance to the most recent antimalarial drugs which are therefore the most powerful, the WHO in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry, is actively examining the advantages of associating several antimalarial drugs that have different mechanisms of action and rapidity of action, the difficulty of the clinical atypical form and biological pauci-parasitic form diagnosis, among patients who have followed a chemoprophylaxis treatment, means sometimes hospitalization and a multiplication of the diagnostic examinations.