a man returned two weeks ago from a vacation in Africa and presents in the emergency room with a severe, spiking fever and chills. Observation in the hospital shows that he exhibits these symptoms every 2 to 3 days, thereafter, appearing to recover, and then will show a relapse again. Blood analysis confirms the presence of trophozoite forms of a sporozoan protozoan known as plasmodium (causes malaria).

Question

a man returned two weeks ago from a vacation in Africa and presents in the emergency room with a severe, spiking fever and chills. Observation in the hospital shows that he exhibits these symptoms every 2 to 3 days, thereafter, appearing to recover, and then will show a relapse again. Blood analysis confirms the presence of trophozoite forms of a sporozoan protozoan known as plasmodium (causes malaria).

A. What antimicrobial would you recommend?

B. Why did you choose the above antimicrobial?

Answer 1

A. The recommended antimicrobial for the treatment of malaria caused by Plasmodium is a combination therapy of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) such as Artemether-Lumefantrine (Coartem), Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine (Duo-Cotecxin), or Artesunate-Amodiaquine.

B. The above antimicrobial is recommended because artemisinin-based combination therapy is the most effective treatment for uncomplicated malaria caused by Plasmodium. It has a high success rate, rapid parasite clearance, and helps prevent the development of drug resistance. ACT works by combining an artemisinin derivative, which rapidly reduces the parasite load in the blood, with a longer-acting partner drug to eliminate the remaining parasites. This combination therapy has been proven to be highly effective in treating multiple species of Plasmodium, including the one causing the symptoms in this case.