A new initiative aims to test for the first time the real-world feasibility of two radical cure treatments for Plasmodium vivax malaria, which requires treatment of both blood and liver stage infections to prevent malaria disease relapse.
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Under the Partnership for Vivax Elimination, or PAVE, a group of organizations led by the Medicines for Malaria Venture and PATH will pilot tafenoquine, a single-dose treatment, and a higher-dose of primaquine, which cuts malaria treatment length from 14 to seven days. Under the multicountry pilot, patients in Peru, Ethiopia, India, Brazil, and Thailand will receive tafenoquine, while patients in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea will receive primaquine. Unitaid is investing $25 million in PAVE.
These treatments will be used alongside a new quantitative point-of-care Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, or G6PD, diagnostic tool, which tests the level of activity of the enzyme glucose six phosphate dehydrogenase to ensure patient safety in taking the drugs. Patients deficient in the G6PD enzyme could experience severe adverse reactions from taking the drugs.
Pediatric formulations of both tafenoquine and primaquine will also be piloted once available.
Why it matters: PAVE aims to accelerate the adoption and scale-up of radical cure treatments for P. vivax malaria, which poses a risk to approximately one-third of the world’s population and accounts for over 70% of malaria cases in countries approaching elimination. It can cause severe disease and death if left untreated.
“The adoption of radical cure requires evidence of operational feasibility of implementing new tools across varying levels of healthcare systems, as well as demonstration of their cost-effectiveness and public health impact,” according to Alexandra Cameron, senior technical manager at Unitaid.
“The evidence generated by PAVE will ultimately lead to improved policy frameworks that guide countries on P. vivax case management and scale-up of the tools necessary to reach elimination targets,” she told Devex via email.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.