Act

ACT is (among other things) the acronym for artemisinin combination preparations. These are drugs against malaria with travel medicine significance that are approved exclusively for therapy, including emergency self-treatment of malaria. ACTs are not suitable for the prophylaxis of malaria due to the short half-life of the artemisinin component. It should be noted that artemisinin resistance is increasing in Southeast Asia. For Southeast Asia, artemisinin combination preparations are therefore no longer recommended for NSB (emergency self-treatment), but AP (atovaquone/proguanil) instead.

Two ACTs are approved in Germany; artemether/lumefantrine (Riamet ®) and Artenimol (dihydroartemisinin)/piperaquine (Eurartesim®).

Both preparations can be used for the therapy of uncomplicated falciparum malaria, as well as for the therapy of acute malaria tertiana (P. vivax, P. ovale) and malaria quartana (P. malariae).

The occurrence of delayed hemolysis 2-4 weeks after administration is particularly relevant after the administration of artesunate i. v., which is administered for the therapy of severe malaria11 and may, however, also play a role in oral therapy with ACTs12. However, the final assessment of the clinical relevance of this phenomenon is pending. Hb monitoring approximately 2 weeks after therapy with an ACT is recommended. The therapy with ACTs is carried out over 3 days, for intake see dosage.

1. German Society for Tropical Medicine, Travel Medicine and Global Health (DTG) e.V. | Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74 | 20359 Hamburg |

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