QUESTION

What medicine is good for curing malaria?

ANSWER

There are lots of different types of medication which are effective against malaria. However, for uncomplicated, unsevere cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends using a type of medication called artemisinin-based combination therapy, or ACT. Again, there are many types of ACTs, so the name may vary depending on what is most common in your area, but some widespread brands include Coartem, Lonart, Duo-Cotecxin, etc. In some countries, they are known by an abbreviation of the drug name – for example, in Tanzania, the most common ACT is a combination of artemether and lumefantrine, and the different brands are collectively known as Alu.

For severe or complicated malaria (there is no hard and fast definition, but the clinical diagnosis may include cerebral involvement, seizure, coma, inability to take oral medication, severe anaemia, etc), the WHO recommends intravenous  (IV) artesunate, with quinine as a second choice.

There are also additional forms of treatment which may be used in certain settings, depending on the geographical region and the type of malaria, or if one of the above treatments is not successful. Likewise, pregnant women should not take ACTs, so they need to seek alternative forms of treatment, such as chloroquine (if the local malaria is known to be sensitive), mefloquine or sulfadoxine-pyremethamine.