New drug to boost India’s efforts to end malaria by 2030
Along with chloroquine, a low-dose primaquine (0.25 mg/kg) course for 14 days is prescribed to clear the dormant hypnozoite stage that maintains transmission and leads to relapse.
Adherence to the two weeks curative cure is often poor because most people stop medication when the symptoms disappear. Adding to the problem are India’s large and poorly regulated private healthcare providers, who often just treat acute symptoms of malaria without prescribing primaquine to kill dormant infection.
“Making Krintafel available quickly will help reduce malaria cases globally and save millions of lives, especially in Asia and the Americas. To ultimately end this disease, we need novel tools like Krintafel, and to continue investing in a pipeline of innovation,” said Martin Edlund, CEO of Malaria No More, which works to support India’s goal to eliminate malaria by 2030.
Although malaria-control measures have lowered both P. falciparum and P. vivax cases and deaths in India, the declines have been achieved predominantly through the control of P. Falciparum. “The hypnozoite reservoir after primary i nfection maintains transmission potential and enables reestablishment of the parasite in areas in which it was thought eradicated,” notes a study by Dr Anup- kumar R Anvikar from the National Institute of Malaria Research in American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
“Having Krintafel available in India could make a huge difference,” he said. Krintafel has been developed by GSK in collaboration with the not-forprofit drug research partnership, Medicines for Malaria Venture, with funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Under the national policy, all fever cases clinically suspected of being malaria must be confirmed by microscopy or rapid diagnostic test. Since 2013, bivalent RDTS that detect and differentiate between P. falciparum and P. vivax infections are being used.
Stopping P. vivax transmission is crucial for India to meet its target of eliminating malaria by 2030. Along with early diagnosis, treatment by accredited social health activists (ASHAS) at the community level, using artemisininbased combination therapy, intensified control of mosquito breeding and use of longlasting insecticidal nets (LLINS) to protect against bites, challenges such as ending hypnozoite reservoir in areas with low and seasonal transmission and improving vector and disease surveillance in urban and peri-urban areas will ensure P. vivax outbreaks do not set back India’s goal of eliminating malaria by 2030.