New drug treatment could reduce malaria rates for pregnant women with HIV

Preliminary results from a recent study show a new drug treatment could help prevent malaria during pregnancy, this offers hope to pregnant women with HIV in Sub Saharan Africa. The new research spearheaded by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute, the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and the Malawi University of Science and Technology reveals this potential breakthrough in the fight against malaria during pregnancy for women living with HIV.

The study titled IMPROVE-2, and published in the Lancet, suggests that the addition of the antimalarial drug dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine to daily co-trimoxazole substantially reduces the risk of malaria in pregnancy following a series of trials. The currently recommended treatment for malaria prevention in pregnant women living with HIV, a daily dose of co-trimoxazole, is an antibiotic already prescribed to prevent opportunistic infections innHIV patients that also has antimalarial properties.

Dr. Hellen Barsosio, a Clinical Research Scientist from the KEMRI, Centre for Global Health Research ( K E M R I – C G H R ) , and lead author on the new paper, said “These findings are very encouraging. Not only did we find that adding dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine to co-trimoxazole was safe and prevented two out of every three malaria infections during pregnancy, it was also very well tolerated by pregnant women, which is very important when a drug is given for prevention. The study could lead to a much-needed policy change that could make a real difference in improving maternal and newborn health in Africa”

Dr Simon Kariuki, Head of Malaria Program from the KEMRI-CGHR said,” we hope\ that these findings, along with a similar trial being conducted in Gabon and Mozambique, will inform the malaria prevention guidelines from the World Health Organization and national health policies.”

Feiko ter Kuile, Professor of Tropical Epidemiology at LSTM, and the study lead, said, “these are promising findings, and potentially welcome news in the future of prevention malaria among pregnant women living with HIV in areas where prevalence of the disease is high. Our trial showed that the addition of dihydroartemisinin–piperaquine to the currently recommended preventative treatment strategy for pregnant women living with HIV reduced malaria by 68%.”