Dar Es Salaam - A standard anti-malaria drug administered to African infants in their first months of life protected many of them against the disease, according to an innovative trial that monitored them until the age of two.
About 700 children in Tanzania were enrolled in the scheme, in which they were given sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine three times, when they were given other vaccinations at two, three and nine months of age.
In the first year of life, prevalence of malaria was 59 percent lower than among infants who had not received the drug. By the end of the second year, the rate was 36 percent lower.
Malaria kills more than a million people a year and at least 300 million cases of acute malaria occur annually, 90 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organisation says.
Research suggests, though, that the tally of infections has been underestimated by half and contends Asia accounts for a quarter of all cases.
The latest research is published in the British medical weekly The Lancet.
In another study, also published in The Lancet, London doctors suggest a combination of two drugs - artemether and lumefantrine - are an effective way of combating malaria in areas where resistance to front-line drugs is high. - Sapa-AFP