Anti-malarial drugs are used to treat or prevent malaria, a disease that occurs in tropical, subtropical, and some temperate regions of the world. The disease is an vector borne parasitic infectious disease that can be fatal sometimes prevalent in tropical and sub tropical countries spread by mosquitoes called female Anopheles mosquito with characteristic feature of fever, chills, sweating and others caused by parasite called plasmodium

 

Anti-malarial drugs are used to treat or prevent malaria, a disease that occurs in tropical, subtropical, and some temperate regions of the world

Antimalarial drugs Classification:

• Antifolic drugs: Pyrimethamine, proguanil
• Sulpha drugs

                    Sulphones: Dapsone

                    Sulphonamides: Sulphadoxine

• Cinchona alkaloids: Quinine
• 4-aminoquinolines: Chloroquine, amodiaquine
• 8-aminoquinolines: Primaquine
• 4-quinoline methanols: Mefloquine
• 9-phenanthrene methanols: Halofantrine
• sesquiterpene lactones:

                    Artemisinin

                    Artemisinin derivatives e.g. artemether

• Antibiotics: Tetracycline, chloramphenicol

Drug combinations:

• Pyrimethamine + sulphadoxine ('Fansidar')
• Pyrimethamine + sulphadoxine + Mefloquine ('Fansimef')
• Atovaquone + proguanil ('Malarone')

Anti malarial drug regimens:

• Chloroquine 300 to 310 mg once weekly, and proguanil 200 mg once daily (started one week before travel, and continued for four weeks after returning);
• Doxycycline 100 mg once daily (started one day before travel, and continued for four weeks after returning);
• Mefloquine 228 to 250 mg once weekly (started two-and-a-half weeks before travel, and continued for four weeks after returning);
• Malarone 1 tablet daily (started one day before travel, and continued for 1 week after returning);

Other chemo prophylactic regimens that is available:

• Dapsone 100 mg and pyrimethamine 12.5 mg once weekly (available as a combination tablet called Maloprim or Deltaprim): this combination is not routinely recommended because of the risk of agranulocytosis;
• Primaquine 30 mg once daily (started the day before travel and continuing for seven days after returning): this regimen is not routinely recommended because of the need for G-6-PD testing prior to starting Primaquine (see the article on Primaquine for more information).
• Quinine sulphate 300 to 325 mg once daily: this regimen is effective but not routinely used because of the unpleasant side effects of quinine.