Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?

<h4>Background to the debate</h4>Current guidelines recommend that all fever episodes in African children be treated presumptively with antimalarial drugs. But declining malarial transmission in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, declining proportions of fevers due to malaria, and the availabi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mike English, Hugh Reyburn, Catherine Goodman, Robert W Snow
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009-01-01
Series:PLoS Medicine
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000015&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850183507316310016
author Mike English
Hugh Reyburn
Catherine Goodman
Robert W Snow
author_facet Mike English
Hugh Reyburn
Catherine Goodman
Robert W Snow
author_sort Mike English
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background to the debate</h4>Current guidelines recommend that all fever episodes in African children be treated presumptively with antimalarial drugs. But declining malarial transmission in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, declining proportions of fevers due to malaria, and the availability of rapid diagnostic tests mean it may be time for this policy to change. This debate examines whether enough evidence exists to support abandoning presumptive treatment and whether African health systems have the capacity to support a shift toward laboratory-confirmed rather than presumptive diagnosis and treatment of malaria in children under five.
format Article
id doaj-art-07313dacf3b04873be5ba5537562cd6a
institution OA Journals
issn 1549-1277
1549-1676
language English
publishDate 2009-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS Medicine
spelling doaj-art-07313dacf3b04873be5ba5537562cd6a2025-08-20T02:17:20ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Medicine1549-12771549-16762009-01-0161e100001510.1371/journal.pmed.1000015Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?Mike EnglishHugh ReyburnCatherine GoodmanRobert W Snow<h4>Background to the debate</h4>Current guidelines recommend that all fever episodes in African children be treated presumptively with antimalarial drugs. But declining malarial transmission in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, declining proportions of fevers due to malaria, and the availability of rapid diagnostic tests mean it may be time for this policy to change. This debate examines whether enough evidence exists to support abandoning presumptive treatment and whether African health systems have the capacity to support a shift toward laboratory-confirmed rather than presumptive diagnosis and treatment of malaria in children under five.https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000015&type=printable
spellingShingle Mike English
Hugh Reyburn
Catherine Goodman
Robert W Snow
Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?
PLoS Medicine
title Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?
title_full Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?
title_fullStr Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?
title_full_unstemmed Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?
title_short Abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years--a case of running before we can walk?
title_sort abandoning presumptive antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged less than five years a case of running before we can walk
url https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000015&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT mikeenglish abandoningpresumptiveantimalarialtreatmentforfebrilechildrenagedlessthanfiveyearsacaseofrunningbeforewecanwalk
AT hughreyburn abandoningpresumptiveantimalarialtreatmentforfebrilechildrenagedlessthanfiveyearsacaseofrunningbeforewecanwalk
AT catherinegoodman abandoningpresumptiveantimalarialtreatmentforfebrilechildrenagedlessthanfiveyearsacaseofrunningbeforewecanwalk
AT robertwsnow abandoningpresumptiveantimalarialtreatmentforfebrilechildrenagedlessthanfiveyearsacaseofrunningbeforewecanwalk