Efficacy of Intermittent Screening and Treatment or Intermittent Preventive Treatment (IPT) With Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine, Versus IPT With Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine for the Control of Malaria in Pregnancy in Kenya

Malaria in pregnancy (MiP) due to Plasmodium falciparum infection is a major cause of maternal morbidity and poor birth outcomes. Pregnant women are at increased risk of more frequent and severe malaria infections than are non-pregnant women. Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp), the administration of treatment doses of an antimalarial at predefined intervals in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy irrespective of the presence of malaria parasitemia, is currently recommended for HIV-negative women in all areas with stable moderate to high transmission of malaria. The strategy is thought to work by providing intermittent clearance or suppression of parasites in the placenta, and preventing new infections from occurring through the prophylactic effect of the recommended drug for IPTp, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP).

SP is the only drug currently used for IPTp. Due to increasing resistance to SP, it is no longer used as a treatment for symptomatic malaria, however, IPTp with SP remains effective even in areas where SP resistance in children under five (determined by in vivo efficacy studies) is up to 26%. SP therefore continues to be used for IPTp in many countries where it is no longer used for treatment of symptomatic malaria. However, more recent data from northern Tanzania and Malawi indicate that at higher rates of resistance, IPTp-SP may no longer be effective, and could potentially be harmful.

In view of this data, a search for alternatives to IPTp-SP is warranted. One strategy would be to choose a different drug for IPTp. Of the available combinations, Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine (DP) remains one of the most attractive options because of the long half-life of piperaquine (PQ) and the demonstrated efficacy and safety in pregnancy. Another strategy to consider is intermittent screening and treatment in pregnancy (ISTp), whereby there is increased screening at time of focused antenatal care (FANC) with treatment of women who screen positive. The same properties (long half-life, tolerability, safety, once daily dosing) which make DP a good choice for IPTp also make it one of the best available options for ISTp.

This study aims to compare the efficacy of IPTp-SP against that of IPTp-DP and ISTp-DP to determine if these alternate strategies are associated with a reduction in malaria infection at delivery among HIV(-) women in an area with decreasing malaria transmission and high levels of SP resistance in Kenya.

Inclusion criteria

• Viable pregnancy assessed by Doppler
• Gestational age 16 to 32 weeks (inclusive) by fundal height
• No history of IPTp use during this pregnancy
• Willing to participate and complete the study schedule
• Willing to sign or thumb print informed consent
• Resident of study area and intending to stay in the area for the duration of the follow-up
• Willing to deliver in the labor ward of the study clinic or hospital
• HIV negative at enrolment

Exclusion criteria

• HIV positive or unknown
• Residence outside study area or planning to move out in the 12 months following enrolment
• High risk pregnancy, including any pre-existing illness likely to cause complication of pregnancy (hypertension, diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, renal disease, liver disease, fistula repair, leg or spine deformity)
• Severe anemia requiring blood transfusion (Hb ≤ 7.0 g/dL) at enrolment
• Known allergy or previous adverse reaction to any of the study drugs
• Unable to give informed consent (for example due to mental disability)
• Previous inclusion in the same study
• Gestational age >32 weeks
• Previous IPTp during the current pregnancy
• Participating in other malaria intervention studies
• Known or suspected cardiac disease
• Patients taking drugs in any of the following classes: antiarrhythmic agents, neuroleptics, macrolides, and certain antimalarial drugs such as mefloquine, chloroquine, halofantrine and lumefantrine.