Low efficacy of vocamine (MMH8®, pediatric formulation) in the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

Abstract

Background: This paper reports for the first time, the antimalarial efficacy of a five-day course of paediatric formulation of "vocamine" named MMH8 ® from Millenia Hope Inc ® for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium fal- ciparum malaria. Methods: We used the standard 14-day WHO protocol to assess therapeutic responses in children less than 5 years in Bangui (Central African Republic) between January and March 2005. Results: We observed high rate of failure treatment: 81 % overall treatment failure with 51 % of Early Treatment Failure and 28.6 % of Late Treatment Failure. Conclusion: Convinced that this drug has only a limited antimalarial effect, the Ministry of Health of the Central African Republic has decided to stop this clinical trial. BACKGROUND Development of resistance of Plasmodium falciparum is an increasing problem for antimalarial chemotherapy be- cause resistance against most available drugs, especially chloroquine and pyrimethamine-sulfadoxine (SP), has devel- oped in the majority of world-wide parasite populations (1). Therefore, several strategies to counteract resistance- development are in place as the use of combined therapies with artemisinin derivatives but identification of new natural compounds remains essential.