What is the most effective treatment for malaria?
There has been a shift recently in the recommended first-line treatment for malaria. Chloroquine (CQ) and Salphadoxine Pyramithamine (SP) were cheap and effective and could be used by village health workers and parents for home-based treatment. But misuse of these drugs led to resistance by the parasite and loss of effectiveness in many malaria-affected areas. Currently, Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) is the most effective first-line treatment for malaria. Artemisinin is isolated from a medicinal herb (called Artemisia annua), which has been used for centuries in China as a traditional treatment for malaria. ACT is comprised of two medicines that work in different ways, so it is believed to be unlikely that the malaria parasite ¾ which has rapidly developed resistance to other single treatments ¾ would develop resistance to these drug combinations. ACT is present in two main forms: artemether-lumefantrine (Coartem) and artesunate-amodiaquine. The benefit of the artemether-lumefa
