More effective malaria medicine discovered

2011/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biokimika
• Osasuna
• Medikuntza

There were applause, as they explained on the Science magazine website, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The results obtained with a new antimalaria substance were responsible for the applause. A researcher at the University of Oxford presented a drug that reduces malaria affected African infant mortality by 22% against the most effective drugs to date --quinines.

Quinine has been used for centuries to treat the most serious cases of malaria, since so far no more effective medicine has been found than it. However, in 2005, led by this researcher at the University of Oxford, a study conducted in four Asian countries showed that another substance, craftsmanship, was more effective than quinine. In fact, death from malaria decreased 35% more than quinine.

However, researchers did not know if in Africa they would also get those good results. In fact, in Africa the population has another gene composition and, in general, is at greater risk of malaria. In addition, Asian research was conducted primarily with adult individuals, while in Africa children die especially affected by malaria.

To clarify the doubt, 5,425 African children under the age of 15 who had a serious malaria case were collected by researchers and treated with one of these two substances. Among the children who took quinine died 10.9% and 8.5% among craftsmen. That is, they died 22% less.

As the scientists have explained, craftsmanship also kills young malaria parasites, unlike quinine, and may be the difference between both drugs.