[The treatment of malaria]. / De behandeling van malaria.

ABSTRACT

In the Netherlands, approximately 200 to 300 patients are diagnosed with imported malaria every year. The symptoms of malaria are non-specific. The current gold standard for malaria diagnostics is to conduct a thick and thin blood smear. New diagnostic techniques are increasingly applied. At present, the treatment of uncomplicated malaria consists of an artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). An alternative treatment for malaria caused by P. vivax,P. knowlesi,P. ovale and P. malariae in the Netherlands is chloroquine. Severe malaria is treated with artesunate intravenously, followed by a full three-day course of oral ACT. Uncomplicated malaria during pregnancy is treated with an ACT (e.g. artemether-lumefantrine) and severe malaria with artesunate intravenously, the latter followed by a full three-day course of oral ACT. There is currently no malaria vaccine available for travellers.