Follow-up survey of children who received sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine for intermittent preventive antimalarial treatment in infants

Abstract

Recently, the World Health Organization emphasized the potential benefit of intermittent preventive treatment in infants (IPTi) to control malaria and officially recommended implementation of IPTi with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) in areas with moderate and high transmission, where SP resistance is not high. As reported rebound effects make further observation mandatory, we performed a survey of participants of a former IPTi trial. Malariometric parameters were similar in the SP and the placebo group. In contrast, anti-Plasmodium falciparum lysate immunoglobulin G antibody levels, a proxymeasure for preceding malaria episodes, remained lower in the SP arm. The most likely explanation is a lower overall exposure to parasitic antigens after IPTi. © The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.