Michael Nambozi

TDRC · Clinical Sciences

Artemisinin‐based combination therapy (ACT) is the first‐line recommended treatment for uncomplicated malaria. Pharmacokinetic (PK) properties in pregnant women are often based on small studies and need to be confirmed and validated in larger pregnant patient populations. This study aimed to evaluate the PK properties of amodiaquine and its active...

We previously assessed the efficacy and safety of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) in HIV-malaria co-infected patients who were on an efavirenz-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen and found cases of re-infection. However, none of the participants’ and malaria or HIV disease characteristics explained the observed re-infections....

Background Malaria in pregnancy, including asymptomatic infection, has a detrimental impact on foetal development. Individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis was conducted to compare the association between antimalarial treatments and adverse pregnancy outcomes, including placental malaria, accompanied with the gestational age at diagnosis of unco...

Background Malaria in pregnancy affects both the mother and the fetus. However, evidence supporting treatment guidelines for uncomplicated (including asymptomatic) falciparum malaria in pregnant women is scarce and assessed in varied ways. We did a systematic literature review and individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis to compare the efficacy...

Background The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of treating uncomplicated malaria during the second and third trimester of pregnancy with an artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) has already been implemented by all sub-Saharan African countries. However, there is limited knowledge on the effect of ACT on pregnancy outcomes, and...

Abstract Background Determining gestational age in resource-poor settings is challenging because of limited availability of ultrasound technology and late first presentation to antenatal clinic. Last menstrual period (LMP), symphysio-pubis fundal height (SFH) and Ballard Score (BS) at delivery are therefore often used. We assessed the accuracy of L...

Background: In Zambia, malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, especially among under five children and pregnant women. For the latter, the World Health Organization recommends the use of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. In a context of limited information on ACT,...

Background Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) resistance to anti-malarial drugs remains a major hindrance to malaria control and elimination. Pf has developed resistance to nearly all antimalarial drugs including chloroquine, the first most frequently used first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria. In Zambia, chloroquine was used as treatment for unco...

Background In Zambia, malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, especially among under five children and pregnant women. For the latter, WHO recommends the use of Artemisinin-based Combinations Treatments (ACTs) in the second and third trimester of pregnancy. In a context of limited information on ACTs, the safety and efficac...

Background Plasmodium falciparum resistance to anti-malarial drugs remains a major obstacle to malaria control and elimination. The parasite has developed resistance to every anti-malarial drug introduced for wide-scale treatment. However, the spread of resistance may be reversible. Malawi was the first country to discontinue chloroquine use due to...

Background: Information regarding the safety and efficacy of artemisinin combination treatments for malaria in pregnant women is limited, particularly among women who live in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, randomized, open-label trial of treatments for malaria in pregnant women in four African countries. A total of 3428...

Background Recent gains in reducing the global burden of malaria are threatened by the emergence of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to artemisinins. The discovery that mutations in portions of a P. falciparum gene encoding kelch (K13)–propeller domains are the major determinant of resistance has provided opportunities for monitoring such resistanc...

Background: Gametocytes are responsible for transmission of malaria from human to mosquito. Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) reduces post-treatment gametocyte carriage, dependent upon host, parasite and pharmacodynamic factors. The gametocytocidal properties of antimalarial drugs are important for malaria elimination efforts. An individual pa...

Background Gametocytes are responsible for transmission of malaria from human to mosquito. Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) reduces post-treatment gametocyte carriage, dependent upon host, parasite and pharmacodynamic factors. The gametocytocidal properties of antimalarial drugs are important for malaria elimination efforts. An individual pati...

Additional file 2: Figure S1. Relationship between gametocytaemia on enrolment and baseline haemoglobin concentration, parasitaemia and patient age. The predicted probability of gametocyte carriage at enrolment is plotted from the multivariate model; the line indicates the best fit, the shaded area the 95 % CI. Only patients from studies with gamet...

Additional file 3: Table S2. Independent risk factors for the prevalence of gametocytaemia at enrolment in children aged 1–5 years. Logistic multivariable analysis by region with prevalence of gametocytaemia at enrolment as dependent variable. Nobs, Number of observations; Npos, Number of positive observations. The relationship between gametocyte p...

Additional file 8: Table S7. Sensitivity analysis: variation in model coefficients after exclusion of individual studies. 1 Estimates as obtained in the final multivariate models and listed in main tables. 2 RSD, Relative standard deviation was calculated as a ratio of standard deviation to mean of the estimates (odds ratio or hazard ratio) calcula...

Additional file 9: Figure S2. Development of gametocytaemia after treatment evaluated in patients with no gametocytaemia on enrolment and full 28-day follow-up. A: Development of gametocytaemia by artemisinin combination therapy. B: Development of gametocytaemia by treatment outcome. (TIF 284 kb)

Additional file 4: Table S3. The effect of treatment dosing on the appearance of gametocytaemia in participants without microscopically detected gametocytaemia before treatment (time to gametocytaemia) and clearance of gametocytaemia in participants with gametocytaemia at enrolment (time to clearance). All analyses of time to clearance are adjusted...

Additional file 7: Table S6. Factors associated with the development of gametocytaemia after enrolment in individuals who were gametocyte-free before treatment with artemisinin combination therapy. Cox regression model for time to gametocytaemia. Only patients with complete 28-day follow-up are included. (DOC 35 kb)

Additional file 1: Table S1. Overview of all included studies. 1 The sensitivity of microscopy methods was classified into one of four categories: 1 = studies in which slides were specifically read for gametocytes, reviewing at least 100 microscopic high power fields or against ≥ 1000 white blood cells (WBC); 2 = microscopists specifically instruct...

Additional file 5: Table S4. Factors associated with the clearance of gametocytaemia after enrolment in individuals who were gametocytaemic before treatment with artemisinin combination therapy. Nobs, Number of observations; N cleared, Number of patients with day of clearance of gametocytaemia recorded. Derived haemoglobin, conversion from haematoc...

Additional file 6: Table S5. Risk of bias in individual studies included in the analysis. ACT, Artemisinin combination therapy. 1 For trials with non-ACTs, data were only analysed for gametocytaemia on enrolment and regimens, arms, randomization, concealment of treatment, sequence generation and treatment blinding are given as not applicable (NA)....

BACKGROUND: Gametocytes are responsible for transmission of malaria from human to mosquito. Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) reduces post-treatment gametocyte carriage, dependent upon host, parasite and pharmacodynamic factors. The gametocytocidal properties of antimalarial drugs are important for malaria elimination efforts. An individual pat...

Background Information regarding the safety and efficacy of artemisinin combination treatments for malaria in pregnant women is limited, particularly among women who live in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods We conducted a multicenter, randomized, open-label trial of treatments for malaria in pregnant women in four African countries. A total of 3428 pre...

Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) decreases placental parasitaemia, thus improving birth outcomes. Zambian policy recommends monthly SP-IPTp doses given presumptively during pregnancy at each antenatal examination, spaced one month apart after 16 weeks of gestation. The effectivene...

Background: Artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum has emerged in the Greater Mekong sub-region and poses a major global public health threat. Slow parasite clearance is a key clinical manifestation of reduced susceptibility to artemisinin. This study was designed to establish the baseline values for clearance in patients from Sub-Saharan Afri...

References of all clinical trials and their study designs

Maps showing locations of published clinical efficacy studies and the studies included in the pooled analysis

Transmission classification

Additional tables and figures

Authors and contributions

Background Artemether–lumefantrine is the most widely used artemisinin-based combination therapy for malaria, although treatment failures occur in some regions. We investigated the effect of dosing strategy on efficacy in a pooled analysis from trials done in a wide range of malaria-endemic settings. Methods We searched PubMed for clinical trials...

Background: Artesunate-amodiaquine (AS-AQ) is one of the most widely used artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) to t reat uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Africa. We investigated the impact of different dosing strategies on the efficacy of this combination for the treatment of falciparum malaria. Methods: Individual patient d...

Artesunate-amodiaquine (AS-AQ) is one of the most widely used artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) to treat uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Africa. We investigated the impact of different dosing strategies on the efficacy of this combination for the treatment of falciparum malaria. Individual patient data from AS-AQ clinica...

Asymptomatic and symptomatic malaria during pregnancy has consequences for both mother and her offspring. Unfortunately, there is insufficient information on the safety and efficacy of most antimalarials in pregnancy. Indeed, clinical trials assessing antimalarial treatments systematically exclude pregnancy for fear of teratogenicity and embryotoxi...

Background Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) decreases adverse effects of malaria during pregnancy. Zambia implemented its IPTp-SP programme in 2003. Emergence of SP-resistant Plasmodium falciparum threatens this strategy. The quintuple mutant haplotype (substitutions in N51I, C59R...

Background Malaria is considered as one of the major public health problems and among the diseases of poverty. In areas of stable and relatively high transmission, pregnant women and their newborn babies are among the higher risk groups. A multicentre trial on the safety and efficacy of several formulations of artemisinin-based combination therapy...

Background: Pharmacovigilance programmes monitor and help ensuring the safe use of medicines which is critical to the success of public health programmes. The commonest method used for discovering previously unknown safety risks is spontaneous notifications. In this study we examine the use of data mining algorithms to identify signals from advers...

Background: Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) is increasingly recommended for antimalarial treatment in many endemic countries; however, concerns have been raised over its potential under dosing in young children. We investigated the influence of different dosing schedules on DP's clinical efficacy. Methods and findings: A systematic search of...

Transmission classification. Authors and contributions.

References of all DP clinical trials, their study designs, and dosing schedules.

Maps showing locations of published DP clinical efficacy studies and the studies included in the pooled analysis.

WWARN DP data and management statistical analytical plan.

WWARN clinical data and management statistical analytical plan.

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) is increasingly recommended for antimalarial treatment in many endemic countries; however, concerns have been raised over its potential under dosing in young children. We investigated the influence of different dosing schedules on DP's clinical efficacy.A systematic search of the literature was conducted to ident...

Background: Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the mainstay for the management of uncomplicated malaria cases. However, up-to-date data able to assist sub-Saharan African countries formulating appropriate antimalarial drug policies are scarce. Methods and Findings: Between 9 July 2007 and 19 June 2009, a randomized, non-inferiority...

Malaria in Zambia remains a public health and developmental challenge, affecting mostly children under five and pregnant women. In 2002, the first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria was changed to artemether-lumefantrine (AL) that has proved to be highly efficacious against multidrug resistant Plasmodium falciparum. The study objective was to...

Trial protocol (0.46 MB DOC)

CONSORT checklist (0.36 MB DOC)

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are currently the preferred option for treating uncomplicated malaria. Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PQP) is a promising fixed-dose ACT with limited information on its safety and efficacy in African children. The non-inferiority of DHA-PQP versus artemether-lumefantrine (AL) in children 6-59 months old...

Anemia is the most frequent cytopenia in HIV-infected individuals and is often associated with malaria. To assess the impact of HIV-1 on the hematological recovery after a clinical malaria episode. In Ndola, Zambia, a region with high malaria and HIV prevalence, hemoglobin (Hb) was measured in 634 malaria patients 14 and 45 days after antimalarial...

Anemia is the most frequent cytopenia in HIV-infected individuals and is often associated with malaria. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of HIV-1 on the hematological recovery after a clinical malaria episode. In Ndola, Zambia, a region with high malaria and HIV prevalence, Hb was measured in 634 malaria patients 14 and 45 days...