With Dr Gloria Ndagire
Dear Doctor,
I suffered from malaria recently and was given fansidar at a rural health centre. I did not get better, so my doctor in Kampala changed my medication. Is Fansidar not effective against malaria anymore?
Jonathan

Dear Jonathan
FANSIDAR is one of the antimalarials that have been in use for a while now and because of this reason, many people have been repeatedly exposed to it. Repeated exposure to and irrational use of medicines eventually results into drug resistance.

This means that the infective organisms eventually find a way of avoiding the harmful effects of the drug. Currently most antimalarial drug regimens are manufactured as combination medicines to increase the cure rates.

Fansidar alone is no longer recommended for use to treat malaria but it can be used in combination with other antimalarials like artemether.

However it can be used as a single drug to prevent Malaria and it is the drug of choice in prevention of malaria in pregnant women