Compliance to Artesunate-Amodiaquine Therapy for Uncomplicated Malaria in Rural Ghana

With a change in malaria treatment policy to use combination antimalaria therapy, it is envisaged that compliance to combination therapy would be less than that of monotherapy that was being used for case management in Ghana. This is especially so as amodiaquine is unpopular because of its side-effects and the combination therapy is not a single formulation (fixed dose). Compliance may further be enhanced by community supervision through home visits of combination antimalarial therapy in cases of uncomplicated malaria.

This study would assess compliance to Artesunate-Amodiaquine therapy. It would also assess the effect of compliance to artesunate-amodiaquine therapy on clinical and parasitological cure rates. This study targeting age groups above ten years, would complement a child artesunate -amodiaquine efficacy study being undertaken by the same investigators in children ten years and below at Kintampo District at the same time. The funding for the child study has been approved by the Gates Malaria Partnership. Findings from both studies, involving all age groups would be made available to the National Malaria Control Programme and other stakeholders as practical information that may be beneficial to implementing policy change process from antimalarial monotherapy to a combination therapy.