Impact of long-term intermittent treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in children on the multiplicity of infection with Plasmodium falciparum

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Frank Mockenhaupt
• Subject Area: Immunology
• Term: from 2002 to 2007
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5401833

Antimalarial interventions in infancy may impair the development of immunity to malaria and of premunition in particular. Premunition as reflected by a high multiplicity of infection (MOI) with Plasmodium falciparum protects from subsequent malaria attacks and is considered to correlate with the degree of immunity in an individual. Within the network "Intermittent treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) in African children as a means of malaria control", 3000 children in settings of differing malaria endemicity in Gabon and Ghana will receive SP at 3 and 9 months of age, or placebo. So far, it is not known whether this intervention has a sustained effect on premunition, i.e. on MOI. In a cross-sectional survey at 15 months of age, MOI shall be assessed in children previously having received SP or placebo. It is to be examined whether intermittent application of SP in infancy affects MOI in childen at that age and whether this influence differs with endemicity. Moreover, the prospective risk of malaria shall be analyzed with respect to MOI in children with and without previous SP-application. These analyses shall include parameters to be determined within additional modules of the named network, i.e. residual antimalarials and drug resistance. In providing information on MOI following intermittent SP application during infancy, and on the clinical consequences, the results of this study may be of importance for the planning and evaluation ot this type of intervention.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants