Treatment. Malaria is treated with antimalarial drugs that kill the parasites in the blood. The WHO recommends artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), which combine an artemisinin drug with a second drug that works in a different way. Using two drugs together makes resistance much less likely to evolve, because a parasite would need resistance to both. Older drugs such as chloroquine are now ineffective against P. falciparum in most areas because of resistance. Severe malaria is treated with injected artesunate. P. vivax and P. ovale infections also need primaquine to kill the dormant liver stages.Prevention for individuals. Travellers take prophylactic antimalarial tablets before, during and after a visit to an endemic area. Anyone can reduce bites by sleeping under a mosquito net, using insect repellent and covering up in the evening and at night, when Anopheles bite.Control in communities.
• Insecticide-treated bed nets protect sleepers and kill mosquitoes that land on them.
• Indoor residual spraying puts long-lasting insecticide on inside walls, where mosquitoes rest after feeding.
• Vaccines: the RTS,S and R21 vaccines are now recommended by the WHO for children in endemic areas. They reduce cases but give only partial protection, because Plasmodium changes its antigens between stages and hides inside cells.
• Rapid diagnosis and treatment cures patients and reduces the gametocytes available to mosquitoes.Problems include insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, drug resistance in Plasmodium, cost and poor access to health care.
• Insecticide-treated bed nets protect sleepers and kill mosquitoes that land on them.
• Indoor residual spraying puts long-lasting insecticide on inside walls, where mosquitoes rest after feeding.
• Vaccines: the RTS,S and R21 vaccines are now recommended by the WHO for children in endemic areas. They reduce cases but give only partial protection, because Plasmodium changes its antigens between stages and hides inside cells.
• Rapid diagnosis and treatment cures patients and reduces the gametocytes available to mosquitoes.Problems include insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, drug resistance in Plasmodium, cost and poor access to health care.