Should all pregnant women be given antimalarial drugs? Evidence Update, Malaria Series, August 2003

Abstract

Fourteen randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials involving 8768 pregnant women living in endemic malaria areas of Tanzania, Kenya and Gambia, indicate that in low parity women antimalarial drugs given routinely during pregnancy reduce the number of women with severe antenatal anaemia, and are associated with fewer perinatal deaths.

This Evidence Update was adapted from Garner P, Gülmezoglu AM. Drugs for preventing malaria-related illness in pregnant women and death in the newborn (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 4, 2003.

Citation

Malaria Series, Effective Health Care Alliance Programme, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 2 pp.

Should all pregnant women be given antimalarial drugs? Evidence Update, Malaria Series, August 2003

Published 1 January 2003