Malaria treatment with atovaquone-proguanil in malaria-immune adults: implications for malaria intervention trials and for pre-exposure prophylaxis of malaria.

Author(s): Polhemus ME, Remich S, Ogutu B, Waitumbi J, Lievens M, Ballou WR, Heppner DG Jr

Affiliation(s): Walter Reed Project, United States Army Medical Research Unit, Kisumu, Kenya. mpolhemus@wrp-ksm.org

Publication date & source: 2008-04, Antimicrob Agents Chemother., 52(4):1493-5. Epub 2008 Feb 11.

Publication type: Randomized Controlled Trial; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Eighty adults in areas of Kenya where malaria is holoendemic received presumptive treatment with atovaquone-proguanil and were followed closely. The time to the first Plasmodium falciparum parasitemia was 32 days. This prolonged prophylaxis period has implications for study design when used in malaria intervention trials and cautiously suggests clinical investigation of potential preexposure prophylaxis of malaria.