Plasmodium vivax malaria across South America: management guidelines and their quality assessment

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Plasmodium vivax malaria represents a major public health problem. This study presents the quality assessment of clinical practice guidelines for the management of P. vivax malaria. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted in PubMed, SciELO, and Google Scholar. Additionally, five guidelines were assessed with the AGREE (Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation) II protocol. RESULTS: The general performance on the domains of stakeholder involvement, development rigor, and editorial independence was low. CONCLUSIONS: Most guidelines lack a solid research methodology, which implies ambiguous accuracy. Much needs to be done in the area of therapeutics and quality of policies.