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US regulators have approved simpler, single-dose treatment to prevent relapse of malaria.
Standard treatment is currently taking two weeks and studies show that many patients do not end each dose.
Antimalarial drugs can cure the initial infection, but the parasites can enter the liver, hide in a dormant form and cause recurrences months or years later. A second medication is used to stop relapses.
The new drug, GlaxoSmithKline's Krintafel, targets only the type of malaria that occurs mainly in South America and Southeast Asia. Most cases of malaria and deaths are in Africa, and they involve another species.
In tests, a dose of Krintafel worked about two weeks of standard treatment, preventing relapses in about three quarters of patients over six months, GSK said the US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for patients aged 16 and over, adding that it is the first new treatment in six decades to prevent relapse.
GlaxoSmithKline plans to submit its application soon to Brazil, then to other countries where the type of malaria is common. He says he will sell cheap pills in poor countries
Worldwide, malaria infects more than 200 million people a year and kills about half a million, most of them children in Africa. Africa
chills and other flu-like symptoms. Krintafel malaria medicines cause about 8.5 million infections per year.
The British drug manufacturer, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, is also developing what could be the first malaria vaccine in the world. Prevention now involves the use of insecticides and mosquito nets.
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