Primaquine or other 8-aminoquinolines for reducing Plasmodium falciparum transmission.

CONCLUSIONS: A single low dose of PQ (0.25 mg/kg) added to artemisinin-based combination therapy for malaria reduces infectiousness of people to mosquitoes at day 3-4 and day 8, and appears as effective as higher doses. The absolute effect is greater at day 3 or 4, and smaller at day 8, in part because of the lower infectiousness in the control group. There was no evidence of increased haemolysis at 0.25 mg/kg, but few G6PD-deficient individuals were included in the trials. The effect on infectiousness precedes the effect of PQ on gametocyte prevalence. We do not know whether single dose PQ could reduce malaria transmission at community level. PMID: 29393511 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Cochrane Database Syst Rev Source Type: research