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Resistance to
anti-malarial drugs on the rise
Worried about ineffective
treatment, state asks three-member team set up for conducting study
to speed up report
 Worried
that resistance towards anti-malarial treatment may be responsible
for the increased health complications and mortality rate in
patients, the state has constituted a three-member team to conduct a
speedy study.
The team, consisting of a district malaria officer and two
scientists, paid a visit to the city in March. It is scheduled to
visit the city again in September. "The team did not get enough
falciparum malaria samples during its March visit. However, it has
plenty of cases now for a larger study," said Dr Girish Ambe,
executive health officer, BMC, adding that the study was needed to
understand if the line of treatment is responsible for the increased
severity in patients.
The first line of anti-malarial drugs, Chloroquine, is administered
to patients suffering with falciparum malaria, considered to be the
most dangerous type of malaria as it affects the liver, brain,
kidneys and lungs. Besides, Chloroquine, the team will also study a
few largely used anti-malarial drugs. The team will largely study
the population in the city from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
City doctors are already worried about the increased resistance
against the common anti-malarial drugs. "We have observed that
Chloroquine is most likely to have resistance in majority of cases
of falciparum. Therefore, now we give an Artisunate or Arthimether
injection, along with a tablet called Doxicyclin," said Dr S Jayaram,
dean, Bombay Hospital.
According to Jayaram, plasmodium vivax, which was earlier considered
to be less virulent, has also become severe this year. "Patients
have developed paralysis, heart attacks and even lung failures due
to vivax this time," added Jayaram.
High demand for platelet
Blood banks in the city are facing an increased demand in platelets
with a number of malaria patients developing severe complications.
Low platelet count is quite common in patients with malaria, dengue
and leptospirosis. According to Dr Girish Chaudhary, assistant
director of the State Blood Transfusion Corporation (SBTC), "The
demand is high, but we are not facing shortage of platelets so far."
Knowing that the demand of platelets, an essential blood component,
may go up during monsoon, the SBTC organised more blood donation
drives in the city, which will go on till August 15. "We had
premeditated the situation and thus we made sure we have ample
blood," said Chaudhary, adding that the city gets about 22,000 units
of donated blood per month.
Rise in treatment cost
The severe complications in malaria patients has also driven up the
cost of treatment. "While earlier a patient would respond to
anti-malarial drugs, now they develop severe health problems. The
stay in intensive care unit (ICU), hospital charges etc hikes the
treatment cost considerably," said Dr Hemant Gupta, associate
professor and head of department of medicine, JJ Hospital, and
consultant physician at Bombay Hospital. Besides the other costs,
platelets are also equally expensive.
A bag of single donor platelet costs about Rs12,000 in a private
blood bank and Rs7,500 in a state-run blood bank. "A severe patient
may need about three to four bags, thus the overall costs shoots up
automatically," said Gupta |