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An anti-mosquito drug tested in Burkina Faso has reduced the number of malaria cases in children by one fifth and could be an important new tool in the global fight against the disease, researchers said.
The drug, ivermectin, is already widely used to treat parasitic infections, but its effects on the incidence of malaria have not yet been tested, said Brian Foy, author of the drug. a study published this week in the British medical journal The Lancet.
The study shows that when people take ivermectin, their blood is deadly to the mosquitoes that bit them, which reduces the chance that others will get bitten and infected.
Foy said that it could potentially be used in combination with other methods of controlling malaria to protect more people.
"This adds another important tool to the array of malaria tools we really need because the benefits of malaria are declining," Foy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
After several years of steady decline, annual cases of mosquito-borne disease have stabilized, according to the 2018 malaria report released by the United Nations Health Agency.
Malaria infects over 200 million people a year and has killed 435,000 people in 2017, mostly in Africa.
The drug trial involved 2,700 people, including 590 children, from eight villages in Burkina Faso.
During the peak mosquito season, there were an average of 2.5 cases of malaria per child in drug-free villages, but in villages that received the drug, the number of malaria cases dropped to two cases. per child.
The number of children who did not catch malaria more than doubled in the group that received the drug, Foy said.
Scientists say the fight against malaria is losing momentum, in part because mosquitoes have become resistant to the type of insecticide commonly used on mosquito nets.
Other control methods tested include a vaccine and genetic modifications to prevent mosquito breeding.
"As resistance to drugs and insecticides is imminent, it is widely accepted that new approaches to malaria are urgently needed," said Chris Drakeley, professor of infection and immunity at the London School of Medicine. Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The trial was small and there could be logistical difficulties in scaling up as it required several rounds of mbad drug administration, he said, but the results are promising.
"This study is the first of its kind to show any effect at the community level, highlighting a potential new avenue for malaria control," said Drakeley.
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