Hi,
Marc Lurie wrote in message news:<448eq096qv8tq66q8hnq62b79n6q4eq5me@4ax.com>...
> Sure, these are anecdotal, however, I'm pretty sure that good
> scientific enquiry will confirm most of what I said.
Mmmmhhhh. To get a definete answer on the effectiveness of
chloroquine+proguanil you'd need a randomized trial with such a large
number of participants that it'd be financially unaffordable.
For that reason we have to rely on studies with a lower level of
evidence. To my best knowledge, in case of chloroquine+proguanil there
are basically three reasons why an increasing number of scientists
discourage patients from taking the combination:
1. Adverse reactions & low compliance (as previously discussed)
2. A relatively large number of patients who have caught malaria
despite of taking the drugs:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5028a1.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12757688
3. A lack of propper evidence that proguanil really increases the
effectiveness of chloroquine. (Treatment studies and laboratory
examinations clearly show chloroquine resistance is very common in
subsaharan Africa. It's easy to perform such studies as the genetic
mutation responsible for chloroquine resistance is well known.) |