The usefulness of twenty-four molecular markers in predicting treatment outcome with combination therapy of amodiaquine plus sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine against falciparum malaria in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In Papua New Guinea (PNG), combination therapy with amodiaquine (AQ) or chloroquine (CQ) plus sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) was introduced as first-line treatment against uncomplicated malaria in 2000. METHODS: We assessed in vivo treatment failure rates with AQ+SP in two different areas in PNG and twenty-four molecular drug resistance markers of Plasmodium falciparum were characterized in pre-treatment samples. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between infecting genotype and treatment response in order to identify useful predictors of treatment failure with AQ+SP. RESULTS: In 2004, Day-28 treatment failure rates for AQ+SP were 29% in the Karimui and 19% i..