gms | German Medical Science

Over the past 15+ years, the malaria in pregnancy research community has been searching for alternative drugs to prevent malaria during pregnancy due to increasing parasite resistance to the two antifolate drugs currently used for chemoprevention in pregnancy: monthly sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) in HIV-negative women given from 2^nd and 3^rd trimester and daily cotrimoxazole (CTX) in pregnant women living with HIV. These two drugs share the same drug targets impacted by the parasite resistance patterns seen in eastern and southern Africa. Dihydroarteminisin-piperaquine (DP), a safe, well-tolerated long-acting ACT providing prophylaxis cover for up to 28 days, is currently the most promising candidate to emerge from years of clinical trials that could be added to SP or daily CTX to prevent malaria during pregnancy. The results of these trials will present findings from a clinical trial in Kenya and Malawi that evaluated the combination of CTX and monthly DP in preventing malaria during pregnancy in women living with HIV.