Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?
editorial · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 19127977.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000015 and PMC identifier 2613424.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Current guidelines recommend that all fever episodes in African children be treated presumptively with antimalarial drugs. But declining malarial transmission in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, declining proportions of fevers due to malaria, and the availability of rapid diagnostic tests mean it may be time for this policy to change. This debate examines whether enough evidence exists to support abandoning presumptive treatment and whether African health systems have the capacity to support a shift toward laboratory-confirmed rather than presumptive diagnosis and treatment of malaria in children under five.
Medical subject headings
- Antimalarials
- Fever
- Malaria