[Efficacy of dihydroartemisinin in treatment of 37 malaria cases].

Dihydroartemisinin is an efficacious derivative of artemisinin which can be taken orally in treatment of malaria with less side reactions. Thirty-seven cases with malaria were treated with this drug in Beijing and in Ruili City, Yunnan Province. Out of them, 25 cases suffered from falciparum malaria with an average parasitemia of 73,218/microliter and 12 from vivax malaria with an average parasitemia of 4,950/microliter. The dosage was 60 mg daily or 2 mg/kg for paediatric patients for 7 successive days with the first dose doubled. All the patients were clinically cured after treatment. Fever subsided 22-72 hours after the beginning of treatment in falciparum malaria patients with an average fever clearance time of 36.24 +/- 15.30 hours and their parasite clearance time was 24-72 hours with an average parasite clearance time of 44.80 +/- 19.09 hours. One of them had recrudescence 19 days after the disappearance of parasites, hence the recrudescence rate of falciparum malaria was 4.8%. Five early cerebral cases in this series were completely cured after the treatment. All the 12 cases with vivax malaria were also clinically cured after treatment, but 1 case had relapse 35 days after treatment. This patient was completely cured with another course of dihydroartemisinin combined with primaquine. All patients tolerated well the oral administration of dihydroartemisinin and no significant side reactions were seen.