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Re‐evaluation of Artemether‐Lumefantrine Combination Effectiveness in Malaria Treatment in Elele
Author(s) -
Chukwu Leo Clinton,
Agbasi Patrick Ugochukwu,
Unekwe Prince Chiazor
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.lb409
Subject(s) - malaria , medicine , artemether/lumefantrine , artemether , lumefantrine , combination therapy , artesunate , vomiting , artemisinin , plasmodium falciparum , immunology
Background Nigeria adopted Artenisinin based combination therapy (ACT) for uncomplicated malaria treatment owing to ACT's efficacy in combating malaria. The need arises to protect ACT efficacy by scaling up: continued assessment, monitoring and evaluation in malaria endemic areas. Purpose Re‐evaluation of effectiveness of artemether‐lumefantrine (ALC) combination for malaria treatment in Elele. Method This is a cross sectional study carried out at Madonna University Teaching Hospital (MUTH) Elele involving qualitative and quantitative data. 100 patients were recruited after consent using the inclusion criteria: temperature of ≥ 37.5 °C, malaria symptoms positive parasitaemiaetc. Ethical certificate was obtained from MUTH ethical committee. Patient's symptoms at Day 0 was assessed while their disappearance was determined on days 2;4;6;8;10;14. The data gotten was analyzed using SPSS 16.0 version and Microsoft excel packages. The student t‐test was used to calculate the P‐value, <0.05 was considered significant. Results Patients majority identified mosquito bites as the means of malaria transmission, (70%). ACT types known and used by patients: artesunate/amodiaquine: 41%); artesunate/lumefantrine: (40%) etc. Fever was the predominant symptoms 92% followed by weakness (90%) etc. Day 10 of therapy, fever, vomiting and abdominal pains disappeared in all patients. By day 14, no patient reported any symptom giving an: “Effective clinical response (ECR) by day 14” . Conclusion Malaria is an most important infectious disease. Artemether‐lumefantrine combination therapies has been proven to be efficacious in malaria treatment. Our hereby reaffirm the effectiveness of ALC for uncomplicated malaria treatment in Elele. The knowledge gap of continuous monitoring and evaluation of this regimen in rural endemic areas like Elele has been satisfactorily done in this study. This will help to protect the component drugs from treatment failures and the menace of resistant strains. Support or Funding Information No funding This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .