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Anti-malarial drugs are medicines
that prevent or treat malaria.
Purpose
Anti-malarial drugs treat or prevent
malaria, a disease that occurs in
tropical, subtropical, and some
temperate regions of the world. The
disease is caused by a parasite,
Plasmodium, which belongs to a group of
one-celled organisms known as protozoa.
The only way to get malaria is to be
bitten by a certain type of mosquito
that has bitten someone who has the
disease.
Description
Anti-malarial Drugs are available only
with a physician's prescription. They
come in tablet, capsule, and injectable
forms. Among the commonly used
Anti-malarial Drugs are Chloroquine,
Mefloquine, Primaquine, Pyrimethamine,
and Quinine.
Prevention
The prevention of anti-malarial drug
resistance is of enormous public health
importance. It can be assumed that no
therapy currently under development or
to be developed in the foreseeable
future will be totally protective
against malaria. In accordance with
this, there is the possibility of
resistance developing to any given
therapy that is developed. This is a
serious concern, as the rate at which
new drugs are produced by no means
matches the rate of the development of
resistance. In addition, the most newly
developed therapeutics tend to be the
most expensive and are required in the
largest quantities by some of the
poorest areas of the world. Therefore it
is apparent that the degree to which
malaria can be controlled depends on the
careful use of the current drugs to
limit, insofar as it is possible, any
further development of resistance.
Provisions essential to this process
include the delivery of fast primary
care where staff are well trained and
supported with the necessary supplies
for efficient treatment. This in itself
is inadequate in large areas where
malaria is endemic thus presenting an
initial problem. One method proposed
that aims to avoid the fundamental lack
in certain countries health care
infrastructure is the privatisation of
some areas, thus enabling drugs to be
purchased on the open market from
sources that are not officially related
to the health care industry. Although
this is now gaining some support there
are many problems related to limited
access and improper drug use, which
could potentially increase the rate of
resistance development to an even
greater extent.
There are two general approaches to
preventing the spread of resistance:
preventing malaria infections and,
preventing the transmission of resistant
parasites. |
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