DEBATE: Can We Treat Any Case Of Fever As Malaria?

[Admin]

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.

Read the full debate

[Diagnostic]

Thanks dr.mahdi

This is the first time I realized it was a protocol to treat any fever as malaria in africa....

I was wondering why our remote local pharmacies used to give antimalarials to all febrile children.

[TZmedstudent]

It is the work of our great IMCI(integrated management of childhood illnesses) WHO guidelines in rural areas it does seem to help but in district hospitals or referral hospitals its obsolete. I currently worked in a village dis[ensary and all under 5 children with fever are treated with anti malarials above 5 could undergo the rapid diagnostic test(RDT) for malaria.

[Mysam]

It is the work of our great IMCI(integrated management of childhood illnesses) WHO guidelines in rural areas it does seem to help but in district hospitals or referral hospitals its obsolete. I currently worked in a village dis[ensary and all under 5 children with fever are treated with anti malarials above 5 could undergo the rapid diagnostic test(RDT) for malaria.

I totally agree with you. I have worked in referral hospitals and the  WHO guidelines wasnt used. We always prefered to draw samples and treat accordingly. As the risk of antimalarial resistance is on the rise in Africa we really need to be careful with these drugs.