R-PR's "Essential" Anti-Malarial Treatment

Rhone-Poulenc Rorer's Paluther (artemether) is equally effective to quinine and is well tolerated in the treatment of cerebral malaria in children, and severe malaria in adults, according to two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine (July 11).

Approximately 40% of the world's population lives in areas of malaria prevalence. Between 300 and 500 million people are diagnosed with the disease annually, and approximately three million people, mainly infants, die from the disease.

Although quinine, the traditional malaria treatment, can still be used in South America and much of Africa, the malaria parasite is now quinine-resistant in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Burma. The fear is that this resistance will spread to Africa where 90% of global cases appear; it is already seen in Gabon and Kenya. Now, only the traditional Chinese medicine, artemisinin (qinghaosu), is able to combat malaria in treatment-resistant areas of the world. An extract from the wormwood shrub Artemesia annua, it has been used as a basis for two synthetic analogues, arteflene and artemether.