Fwd: [pronut-hiv] BBC: Folic acid 'hinders malaria drug'

[Samson Desie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: samson desie <samson...@yahoo.com>
Date: Oct 25, 2006 5:48 PM
Subject: Fwd: [pronut-hiv] BBC: Folic acid 'hinders malaria drug'
To: samson...@gmail.com

Note: forwarded message attached.

Samson DesieTel: 251 911 79 81 90

---

Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls. Great rates starting at 1¢/min.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "ProNut-HIV" <pronu...@healthnet.org>
To: < pronu...@healthnet.org>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 08:11:26 -0400
Subject: [pronut-hiv] BBC: Folic acid 'hinders malaria drug'
Folic acid 'hinders malaria drug'

Pregnant women taking folic acid to protect their baby's development
may be at greater risk of malaria as a result, Kenyan research suggests.

The supplement interacts with a common antimalarial drug, rendering it
less effective, the work shows.

Expectant mums on high dose folic acid, as recommended in Kenya, were
twice as likely as others to fail treatment with
sulfacoxine-pyrimethamine (SP).

The study appears in Public Library of Science Clinical Trials.

Dosage effect

The authors recommend pregnant women in malaria endemic areas, such as
sub-Saharan Africa, be given lower doses of folic acid or folate to
avoid this problem.

Health authorities recommend pregnant women take 0.4mg of folate per
day to protect the developing embryo against spine and brain defects.

But many African countries, including Kenya, use 5mg per day because
this dose is more easily available there.

Some take it throughout pregnancy because it can also help to reduce
the chance of anaemia in the mother.

Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to malaria as pregnancy
reduces their immunity, making them more susceptible to infection and
increasing the risk of illness, severe anaemia and death.

For the unborn child, maternal malaria increases the risk of abortion,
stillbirth, premature delivery and low birth weight - a leading cause of
child mortality.

Up to 200,000 newborns die each year as a result of malaria in
pregnancy.

For these reasons, the World Health Organization recommends malaria
drugs to prevent and treat malaria in pregnant women.

The findings

In the study, after two weeks of treatment the malaria drug failed 27%
of the women taking 5mg of folate daily - nearly double the 14% failure
seen in those taking 0.4mg folate or placebo.

There was no difference in stillbirths, premature deliveries or
neonatal deaths among the 488 pregnant women, however.

The study authors said: "Given the international recommendations, the
relatively low prevalence of folate deficiency in pregnancy, and the
compromised efficacy of SP for malaria treatment when folate 5mg is
used, we believe it is reasonable to recommend folate 0.4mg daily for
pregnant women in malarious areas in sub-Saharan Africa."

Professor Brian Greenwood from the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine said: "This is an important result as folate is given
frequently to pregnant women and it has not been clear before if this
can interfere with SP when this is given at the same time.

"Theoretically, one would expect that this might be the case and there
is evidence that giving folate with SP to children when they are treated
for malaria does have an effect on the efficacy of the SP."

He said his own recent study in The Gambia did not find such an
interaction between SP and folate.

But he said the difference might be related to the fact that the
parasites in Kenya are more resistant to SP than those in The Gambia and
that the doses of folate given may not have been the same. In The Gambia
women received 0.5 - 1.5 mg of folic acid per day.

He cautioned: "The results from the Kenyan study may not be applicable
everywhere and some more studies looking at different doses may be
needed."


_______________________________________________
Post message: pronu...@healthnet.org
Subscribe: pronut-...@healthnet.org
Unsubscribe: pronut-h...@healthnet.org
Help: pronut-h...@healthnet.org
Info & archives: http://list.healthnet.org/mailman/listinfo/pronut-hiv




--
Samson Desie
Emergency Nutritionist
UNICEF
Tel: 251 9 15 743797
      251 9  11 798190
email : sde...@unicef.org