New treatment for P. vivax malaria may benefit Brazilian public health

A population-level transmission dynamics modelling study by Nekkab et al. on the estimated impact of tafenoquine (TQ) — a new single-dose treatment for the prevention of relapse of Plasmodium vivax malaria — on control and elimination in Brazil was recently published. It is the first study to show how rolling out TQ in populations can improve case management of P. vivax, reduce transmission, and prevent a substantial number of cases, even in settings with high rates of effective case management with primaquine (PQ). Its main finding was that, compared to Brazil’s current standard regimen, PQ over 7 days, the use of TQ following a glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase (G6PD) screening test has the potential to improve effective radical cure rate from 42% to 62% through increased treatment adherence and protection from new infections. Thus, with the new treatment, transmission could be reduced by 38% over a 5-year period in Brazil across mixed transmission settings.