Preventive drugs protect children.Giving children a course of antimalarial drugs Antimalarial Drugs Definition Antimalarial drugs are medicines that prevent or treat malaria. Purpose Antimalarial drugs treat or prevent malaria, a disease that occurs in tropical, subtropical, and some temperate regions of the world. during the rainy season in malaria zones prevents many from contracting the mosquito-borne disease, researchers report. Since there is no established malaria vaccine Malaria vaccines are an area of intensive research, however, no effective vaccine has yet been introduced into clinical practice. Justification for malaria vaccine research , this approach might provide a viable strategy for prevention, says Brian Greenwood, an internist internist /in·tern·ist/ (in-ter´nist) a specialist in internal medicine. in·ter·nist n. A physician specializing in internal medicine. at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases Tropical diseases are infectious diseases that either occur uniquely in tropical and subtropical regions (which is rare) or, more commonly, are either more widespread in the tropics or more difficult to prevent or control. . At the start of the 2002 rainy season in Senegal, researchers gave 1,200 children under age 5 either three monthly doses of the antimalarial drugs artesunate and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine or placebo pills. After the rains ended, the scientists found that 203 of the children getting placebos had come down with malaria, but only 32 of the drug-treated children had, says Badara Cisse, Greenwood's colleague at the London School. Senegal is planning a similar trial that will include 59,000 children, Cisse says. Three doses of the two medications cost slightly more than $2 per child.--N.S. |
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