In-vivo Efficacy and Safety of Artemether/Lumefantrine Vs Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine for Treatment of Uncomplicated Malaria and Assessment of Parasite Genetic Factors Associated With Parasite Clearance or Treatment Failure

Drug efficacy testing is one of the most important tasks that is routinely undertaken by the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) in Tanzania and has been recommended by the World health Organisation to monitor the efficacy of artemisinin based combination therapy (ACT) and possibly detect evolution/emergency of tolerance/resistance to these drugs. Currently, Artemether-lumefantrine (ALu) is the only ACT recommended by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and therefore testing of new ACTs such as dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PQ) is important because alternative drugs are urgently required. Meanwhile, NMCP is revising the guidelines for treatment of malaria in Tanzania and DHA-PQ has been earmarked as an alternative ACT to be used together with ALu. However, efficacy and safety data of DHA-PQ is missing since no studies have been done in Tanzania. Thus, a study is proposed to assess the efficacy and safety of DHA-PQ Vs ALu and provide important data which will enable the NMCP to make informed decisions; and possibly recommend DHA-PQ in the new Malaria treatment guidelines as the second line drug for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in the country.