Malaria: nouvelles stratégies de traitement

Abstract

There are new, effective and well tolerated antimalarial drugs on the market. The new treatment strategies in endemic areas have abandoned monotherapies and make systematic use of drug combinations, preferentially based on artemisinin derivatives. Implementation of these new strategies faces problems in endemic areas for reasons of cost, structures and access to care. In cases of imported malaria it is essential for the treatment to be effective and reliable against Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Recent evidence shows that the combination artemether-lumefantrine (Riamet®) is one of the best, or even the best, treatment option for imported malaria. Malaria must be ruled out in any traveller with a history of fever or malaise on returning from an endemic area, whatever the associated symptoms may be.