Optimising dosing of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine for malaria preventive treatment in Malawian infants

The World Health Organisation recommends that a commonly used malaria treatment called sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine should be given to infants (babies, aged less than 1-year old) together with their routine vaccinations to prevent malaria. However, malaria parasites are increasingly becoming resistant to sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine. A newer malaria treatment called dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine has been identified as a more effective alternative. However, we do not yet understand how to best- and safely dose dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine to prevent malaria in these infants. In this Fellowship, I will use mathematical model methodologies to develop optimised dosing strategies of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine in order to prevent malaria in infants. To do this, I will assess the efficacy and safety of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, and measure piperaquine drug levels in the blood of Malawian infants who receive dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine together with routine vaccinations. This work will provide the much needed evidence on how to best dose this promising treatment, dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, for malaria prevention in infants.