Old-Fashioned Malaria Strategy Saves Thousands

            We are in a constant battle with sickness and disease in this world. But, we are very lucky to be living in a world with modern medicine that is constantly developing new ways and methods to treat, prevent, and destroy viruses, diseases, and sicknesses all around us. Malaria is a disease that has spread throughout the world, killing over a million people each year (unicef.org). With many people working on how to prevent, treat, and destroy the parasite, they have done so with the work of drug-delivering drones and even genetically engineered mosquitoes that are unable to carry the parasite. Amy Maxmen, an award-winning science journalist explains that amid so much technology, a more “old fashioned” approach of combating the disease seems to be saving tens-of-thousands of lives.

            Seasonal malaria chemoprevention involves “giving children a dose of antimalarial drugs once each month in the rainy season to prevent the disease in hard-hit regions.” Since the initiation of this strategy in the last few years we have seen incredible results in saving lives and reducing the number of malaria cases. But, this isn’t the first time this strategy has been put to use. In the 1950s, the use of chemoprevention was put into play but was not a good long-term solution due to drug resistance from the widespread use of malaria drugs. Years later in the year 2000 malariologists saw that almost a million people - mostly children - were dying each year from malaria. So, they revisited the chemopreventional approach and found that “between 2002 and 2012, clinical trials conducted in West Africa suggested that combinations of older malaria drugs had the power to prevent 8.8 million cases and 80,000 deaths every year if implemented solely during the rainy season, when the disease spikes (nature.com).” After implementing the chemoprevention “they are seeing the same level of efficacy against malaria that we saw in clinical trials and reducing hospital admissions (nature.com).”

            The combination of three older malaria drugs, (sulphadoxine, pyrimethamine and amodiaquine) is what has saved tens-of-thousands of lives since. Using three older drugs provides the main cure, artemisinin, to remain effective if tolerance or resistance to the other drugs came to be.

            Sadly, this is no long-term solution to the problem. Scientists have already seen a drug resistance in parasites and are working to “hit the disease hard and fast” (nature.com) in order to continually decrease the amount of cases and deaths of malaria in Africa for the long-term.

            Malaria researchers estimated that chemoprevention has averted about 6 million cases and 40,000 deaths in 2015 and 2016 in Chad, Niger, and other Sub-Saharan African countries. Also, they said that “malaria prevalence was reduced by 65% in children under age 5 who were treated… in the Malian district of Kita.” (nature.com) These results are promising and many people are working very hard to keep this momentum going to continue to save lives. Since the results, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) is planning to help fund the chemoprevention program in eight more countries next year.

            This article was very informative and eye-opening for me. I had no idea how many people died of malaria and I had no idea it was such a large problem. This is important to me because it’s not only making a new scientific discovery but saving thousands of lives and making their lives better. Through the evolution and advancements of science we can do amazing things in technology and medicine and this give me hope for a safer, and healthier world.


Resources: 
http://www.nature.com/news/resurrected-malaria-strategy-saves-thousands-of-lives-in-africa-1.22982

https://www.unicef.org/health/files/health_africamalaria.pdf