Malaria in pregnancy

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KIT Dossier Malaria in pregnancy

Last update: Monday 29 July 2013
  • ACT = Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy
    Over the past decade, a new group of antimalarials – the artemisinin compounds, especially artesunate, artemether and dihydroartemisinin – have been deployed on an increasingly large scale. These compounds produce a very rapid therapeutic response (reduction of the parasite biomass and resolution of symptoms), are active against multidrugresistant P. falciparum, are well tolerated by the patients and reduce gametocyte carriage (and thus have the potential to reduce transmission of malaria). To date, no resistance to artemisinin or artemisinin derivatives has been reported, although some decrease in sensitivity in vitro has been detected in China and Viet Nam. As a response to increasing levels of resistance to antimalarial medicines, WHO recommends that all countries experiencing resistance to conventional monotherapies, such as chloroquine, amodiaquine or sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine, should use combination therapies, preferably those containing artemisinin derivatives (ACTs – artemisinin-based combination therapies) for falciparum malaria (source: Facts on ACTs, Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies, World Health Organization).
  • IPT = Intermittent Preventive Treatment
    Intermittent preventive treatment involves providing all pregnant women with at least two preventive treatment doses of an effective antimalarial drug during routine antenatal clinic visits. This approach has been shown to be safe, inexpensive and effective (source: World Health Organization).
  • MiP = Malaria in Pregnancy
    Malarial infection during pregnancy is a major public health problem in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. The burden of malaria infection during pregnancy is caused chiefly by Plasmodium falciparum, the most common malaria species in Africa. The impact of the other three human malaria parasites (P. vivax, P. malariae, and P. ovale) is less clear (source: World Health Organization).
  • Plasmodium falciparum
    Malaria is caused by parasites of the species Plasmodium. The parasites are spread to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes.There are four types of human malaria: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae,    Plasmodium ovale. Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are the most common. Plasmodium falciparum is the most deadly (source: World Health Organization).
  • RDT = Rapid Diagnostic Tests
    Malaria rapid diagnostic tests, sometimes called "dipsticks" or malaria rapid diagnostic devices (MRDDs), assist in the diagnosis of malaria by providing evidence of the presence of malaria parasites in human blood. RDTs are an alternative to diagnosis based on clinical grounds or microscopy, particularly where good quality microscopy services cannot be readily provided (source: World Health Organization).
Malaria diagnostics

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Thematic guides to selected key documents & links, and to expertise of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT). Have a look on the dossiers overview page.

KIT's involvement

The department Biomedical Research, Unit Parasitology, has several research lines in “malaria in pregnancy”.

Contact

For questions and suggestions, please contact the editor Ilse Egers