April 27, 2023
Effect of Primaquine dose on efficacy, tolerability and haematology –the systematic review to the automated report!” by Megha Rajasekhar and Peta Edler.
Plasmodium vivax causes ~5 million cases of malaria annually across endemic countries but is challenging to treat due to its formation of dormant liver stages that can reactivate weeks to months after the initial infection and cause relapses. Effective treatment requires a combination of drugs targeting both the blood and liver stages of the parasite (radical cure). Primaquine has been used for decades for the prevention of relapses and remains the main treatment option in most endemic locations today, however, the optimal dose remains unclear. The use of primaquine is also hindered by the risk of severe haemolysis in individuals with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency.
We conducted a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis to investigate the effect of primaquine dose on the risk of vivax recurrences, tolerability and haemoglobin response in patients with vivax malaria.
While the systematic review allowed us to assess how primaquine dose performed across 17 countries from the 3 major endemic regions across the world, there was interest among members of the Asia-Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN) to obtain data for specific countries and regions. To streamline the delivery of these documents we created an automated reporting app that allows the user to select the country/countries or region/s they wish to review.