Dihydroartemisinin is an efficacious derivative of
artemisinin which can be taken orally in treatment of
malaria with less side reactions. Thirty-seven cases with
malaria were treated with this
drug in Beijing and in Ruili City, Yunnan Province. Out of them, 25 cases suffered from
falciparum malaria with an average
parasitemia of 73,218/microliter and 12 from
vivax malaria with an average
parasitemia of 4,950/microliter. The dosage was 60 mg daily or 2 mg/kg for paediatric patients for 7 successive days with the first dose doubled. All the patients were clinically cured
after treatment.
Fever subsided 22-72 hours after the beginning of treatment in
falciparum malaria patients with an average
fever clearance time of 36.24 +/- 15.30 hours and their parasite clearance time was 24-72 hours with an average parasite clearance time of 44.80 +/- 19.09 hours. One of them had recrudescence 19 days after the disappearance of parasites, hence the recrudescence rate of
falciparum malaria was 4.8%. Five early cerebral cases in this series were completely cured after the treatment. All the 12 cases with
vivax malaria were also clinically cured
after treatment, but 1 case had relapse 35 days
after treatment. This patient was completely cured with another course of
dihydroartemisinin combined with
primaquine. All patients tolerated well the
oral administration of
dihydroartemisinin and no significant side reactions were seen.