Temperature changes in the course of treatment of severe malaria patients with artemether and quinine

Abstract
Objective: Severe malaria is a medical emergency with devastating multi-systemic effects, if not promptly treated with sensitive and safe drugs, death is imminent. Quinine and artemether are antimalarial drugs that are used in treating severe malaria. Efforts in this study were directed at comparing temperature changes in the cause of treatment of severe malaria patients with artemether and quinine in Ikenne local Government area of Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria. Material & Methods: 32 patients in the study were randomly assigned to receive either artemether or quinine under medical supervision. 16 patients were allocated into two treatment groups. Patients in the quinine treatment were given 10mg/kg body weight quinine into 5% dextrose/saline intravenously 8hourly whilst artemether group were given 1.6mg/kg body weight intramuscularly for 5days. The patients temperature were then followed up for 14days. Results: A total of 28 out of 32 patients enrolled into the study had temperature ≥ 37.5 °C at day 0. The mean fever clearance time for quinine treatment group was 46.50 ± 20.49 hours while that of artemether group was 72.0 ± 27.7 hours (p=0.006). Fever was completely resolved in both treatment group at day 14. Conclusion: Results from this study indicated that quinine relative to artemether has a faster and sustained recovery from increased in temperature. Key Words: Severe malaria; artemether; quinine; temperature DOI: 10.3126/ajms.v2i1.3351 Asian Journal of Medical Sciences 2 (2011) 41-45
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