[Efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in children living in a rural area of Burkina Faso in 2009]. / Efficacité de l'artéméther-luméfantrine dans le traitement du paludisme simple de l'enfant en milieu rural au Burkina Faso en 2009.

In order to implement community case management of malaria strategy in a rural area of intense transmission, of children using artemether-lumefantrine combination, we assessed the therapeutic efficacy of the medicine. We conducted an open label and uncontrolled clinical trial in an unique centre from September 2009 to December 2009 in children 6-59 months old who consulted at health facilities for uncomplicated malaria. The primary endpoint was clinical and parasitological cure rate at day 28 corrected by PCR. In total 106 children were enrolled. Parasite clearance at day 2 was 99.04% and the adequate clinical and parasitological response corrected by PCR at day 28 was 90.5%. Our results confirm that artemether-lumefantrine combination is still effective.

Humoral and cell-mediated immunity to MSP3 peptides in adults immunized with MSP3 in malaria endemic area, Burkina Faso.

We performed a single-blind, randomized phase 1 trial of the long synthetic peptide (LSP) of merozoite surface protein-3 (MSP3) in adults living in Burkina Faso. Thirty eligible volunteers were randomized to receive either the MSP3-LSP candidate vaccine or tetanus toxoid vaccine as a control. A dose of each vaccine was administered on days 0, 28 and 112 and the vaccine was formulated with aluminium hydroxide. Humoral immune responses were assessed by ELISA at days 0, 28, 56, 112, 140, 252 and 365 and cell-mediated immune responses by lymphoproliferation assay and by ELISA on days 0, 56 and 140. IgG responses to four peptides of MSP3 were similar in both vaccine groups. Higher IgG concentrations were recorded after the beginning of malaria high transmission season in both vaccine groups. The lymphocyte proliferation and the production of IFN-gamma in response to stimulation with the four overlapping peptides increased following vaccination in the MSP3-LSP vaccine group, but did not change appreciably in the control group. In contrast to natural infection, MSP3-LSP did not boost humoral responses to the four overlapping peptides of MSP3 to any detectable degree in our semi-immune adult. MSP3-LSP may be more immunogenic in young children with little or no acquired immunity.

[Change of antimalarial first-line treatment in Burkina Faso in 2005]. / Les raisons d'un changement de médicaments de première intention pour le traitement du paludisme simple au Burkina Faso en 2005.

Burkina Faso has recently changed the antimalarial drug policy to artesunate/amodiaquine or artemether/lumefantrine as the first-line antimalarial drug and sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine for the intermittent preventive treatment in pregnant woman. Before the implementation of this new strategy we conducted an in vivo efficacy study with chloroquine or sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine for treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in urban area of Burkina from September to December 2003. Chloroquine (25 mg/kg over 3 days) or sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine (25 mg/kg + 0.025 mg/kg single dose) was administered respectively to 137 and 125 children aged from 6 to 59 months old in a randomized, opened study. Follow up extended over 28 days using modified WHO protocol. After adjusting the results by PCR, treatment failures rates were 63.4% (83/131) and 13.8% (17/123) respectively for chloroquine and sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine. These results with other observations have justified the change of malaria therapy policy in Burkina Faso in 2005.

[Genetic diversity of P. falciparum and pathogenesis of the severe malarial anaemia in children under 5 years old in the province of Boulgou, Burkina Faso]. / Diversité génétique de Plasmodium falciparum et pathogénie de l'anémie palustre sévere chez des enfants de moins de 5 ans de la province du Boulgou, Burkina Faso.

The clinical presentation of malaria mainly the severe form may be related to Plasmodium falciparum msp-2 (merozoite surface protein 2) specific family To verify this hypothesis, during the high malaria transmission season in 2001; we analyzed the allelic polymorphism of the msp-2 gene of P. falciparum in children under 5 years old with different presentation of malaria in the regional Hospital and at community level in the Boulgou Province (Burkina Faso). A total of 405 children (107 severe malarial anaemia cases, 102 severe malaria cases without severe anaemia and 196 non severe malaria cases) were enrolled in the study. The frequencies of the FC27 were 89.2% in severe malarial anaemia children group, then 89.7% and 86.9% respectively in severe malaria non anaemic children cases and non severe malaria cases (P = 0.4). The frequencies of the 3D7 were 72.5%; 84.1% and 77% respectively severe malaria non anaemic children, severe malarial anaemia cases and non severe malaria cases (P = 0.7). The complexity of the FC27 genotypes was significantly higher in children with severe malaria (with and without severe anaemia) compared to the non severe malarial children (P << 0.001). No significant difference was pointed up in the complexity of the 3D7 genotypes.

[Effect of a large scale community-based distribution of artemether-lumefantrine on its therapeutic efficacy among children living in a rural area of Burkina Faso]. / Effet d'une distribution communautaire à large échelle de l'artéméther-luméfantrine sur son efficacité thérapeutique chez les enfants vivant en milieu rural au Burkina Faso.

This study aimed to assess the effect of an integrated community case management of malaria and pneumonia programme (iCCMmp) on the efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine (AL). Thus, we carried out two open label and unique centre clinical trials, before and after the iCCMmp, on the therapeutic efficacy of AL. A total of 210 children aged 6-59 months, were included in the study, 105 before and 105 after the iCCMmp. The adequate clinical and parasitological response was 90.5% and 86.7% respectively before and after the iCCMmp (p value = 0.516). Our findings reported no effect of iCCMmp on the therapeutic efficacy of the AL.