In this article, we discussed the effects of not finishing antimalarial therapy course by patients. Usually, most antimalarial drugs last 3 days.
Antimalarials are medications used to eradicate plasmodium parasites from the body of anyone who is having the parasites.
There are a lot of antimalarial agents out there. The most commonly used ones are the artemetheter combination therapy popularly known as ACT.
The rationale behind the use of ACT as the standard malaria treatment is to prevent plasmodium parasites from developing resistance against available antimalarials.
In some African countries, plasmodium faciparium has developed resistance against chloroquine.
Like we earlier state, using artemetheter combination therapy prevents plasmodium parasites from developing resistance against available antimalarials.
Similarly, extending the ACT to three days course ensures that there is a total plasmodium parasites clearance out of the body.
When the plasmodium load in the system high, some clinicians give additional sulphadoxine pyrimethamine at day 4, after completion of 3 day course of ACT.
Now, on the what happens when antimalarial drugs dosage course are not completed, it leads to resistance development by plasmodium parasites.
Consequently, treating of malaria will be difficult if not impossible when this happens.
So, not finishing antimalarial drugs will result in the following:
- Resistance development to available antimalarials
- High cost of treatment
- Increased complications as a result of malaria infection
- Increased malaria caused death