QUESTION:

How do you cure malaria?

ANSWER:

There are a number of different types of treatment for malaria, depending on the kind you have and its severity. Most cases of malaria can be treated with orally administered medication; it is only in the most severe cases, for example if the patient is already in a coma or has had multiple convulsions, that intravenous medication is given.

Chloroquine sulphate is the drug of choice for non-resistant strains of malaria; unfortunately, resistance has been detected in most of the main forms of malaria, in certain geographic regions of the world. In places known to suffer from chloroquine-resistant malaria, other options are available, such as quinine sulfate, doxycycline, tetracycline and atovaquone-proguanil (sold as Malarone, and also used to prevent malaria as a prophylaxis). More recently, treatment known as ACTs, or artemisinin-based combination therapies, have been introduced to treat cases of malaria which are known to be resistant to chloroquine. These ACTs combine various drugs in order to combat malaria effectively, though worryingly some cases of patient-level resistance to ACTs are also beginning to be reported. As such, there is a continual need for drug discovery research with regards to malaria, in order to control this global, deadly disease.

It is also worth mentioning that some forms of malaria require additional medication, in order to kill dormant parasites in the liver. This emphasizes the importance of accurate diagnosis of infection, in order to ensure effective treatment.