Is availability of artesunate associated with the prognosis of imported malaria in Spain?

Abstract

Although there is a lot of aspects we stil need to understand about treatment with artemisinins[1], there is no doubt about their efficacy in treating malaria. Artesunate (AS) has demonstrated its superiority against quinine for treatment of severe malaria in terms of reduction of mortality in different randomized clinical trials performed in endemic countries and subsequent meta-analysis[2-4]. Despite having been established as the first line treatment by WHO and several national guidelines[5,6], its full implementation in non-endemic countries has not been completed.