Malaria

Artesunate (1) (ART), also called as dihydroartemisinin-12-α-succinate, it is a semisynthetic peroxide-bridged sesquiterpene lactone compound derived from Artemisinin, the bioactive component of the Chinese medicinal herb called Artemisia annua.  An accurate, simple and precise HPLC method was developed and validated for forced degradation studies of drug Artesunate .The column was used C18 column (150X4.6mmX5µm ) column  by isocratic elution. The mobile phase composition consisted of Acetonitrile Water and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in the ratio of 55:45:0.1 v/v. The analysis was performed at a 1ml/min flow rate. The analytical performance parameters such as linearity, precision, accuracy, specificity, limit of detection (LOD) and lower limit of quantification (LOQ) were determined according to International Conference for Harmonization ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines.

Malaria is a major public health issue that affects people all around the world. Malaria's name came from the words mal-bad and aria-air. Malaria is a plasmodium infection caused by Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium vivax, and Plasmodium malaria, among others. Malaria infection can be treated with a variety of medications. Anemia and fever are both common signs of illness. Malaria has a life cycle. Malaria has an asexual and sexual phase, with the malaria parasite impacting the blood and hepatocytes (liver) of the host. The early stages of the life cycle do not create any symptoms, but fever or chills are developed when merozoites penetrate the host's liver. Because medication resistance is a serious issue for malaria patients, a combination therapy is used to treat malaria patient therefore; combination therapy is used instead of the single drug although it is used to overcome the drug resistance, side effect of drug as well. The focus of this review article is on classification, chemical structure and structural activity relationship of compounds, as well as new discovery and modification. The present article focused on recent development in malaria treatment.

  To evaluate the prescribing pattern of anti-malarial drug and to assess the adherence of anti-malarial drugs prescribing according to Guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of malaria in India 2011 and to explore the possibility of development of resistance with anti-malarial drugs.A retrospective, Single-centric study with cases of anti-malarial drugs prescribed in duration of 1 year from Jan-2011 to Dec-2011 at Lions General hospital, Mehsana, Gujarat, India. Data were analyzed with different evaluations. A total of 474 cases were collected including 282 (59.49%) male and 192 (40.51%) female. Out of these 283 (59.70%) were uncomplicated, 115(24.26%) were complicated and 76 (16.04%) were seen of non-malaria prescribed with anti-malarial drugs. Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) was prescribed in 44(7.96%) patients. Artesunate monotherapy were prescribed in 230 (41.59%) patients. Adherence to National Guideline in cases with P. vivax malaria is 71.53% and for pregnant women and with mixed infection is 100%, while non adherence is more than 80% seen in P. falciparum malaria (87.39%) and clinical malaria (84%) cases. Artesunate and Chloroquine were also prescribed in non-malarial patients. Among all the cases IV injection of anti-malarial drugs prescribed were 48.82%. Average drug cost/prescription is INR 123.28 Rs and % drug cost on injection is 87.50%.This study shows the prescribing pattern of anti-malarial drug adherence to National Guideline therapy is low. Inappropriate use of anti-malarial drugs among the patients is very high. So possibility of development of resistance with anti-malarial drugs in the population will rapidly spread and cost of the prescription will burden on the patients. Key Words: Malaria, Anti-malarial drugs, Artesunate, Chloroquine, Drug resistance