Background: In West Africa, treatment for the prevention of malaria during pregnancy has recently changed from chloroquine (CQ) prophylaxis to intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp). We assessed the benefits of IPTp with respect to those of CQ, using a before-after study.
Methods: CQ efficacy was evaluated during a cross-sectional survey conducted in Benin between April 2004 and April 2005. IPTp efficacy was assessed using data from an ongoing clinical trial to compare sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine with mefloquine that began in the same maternity clinics during July 2005; the present analysis is limited to women who delivered between November 2005 and November 2006. Treatment assignments were not unblinded. We compared the efficacy of the 2 strategies against low birth weight and placental infection by performing multiple logistic regressions.
Results: A total of 1699 women (1090 in the CQ group and 609 in the IPTp group) who delivered live singletons were analyzed. Characteristics of women in the CQ group were similar to those of women in the IPTp group. We showed that women in the IPTp group had a significantly decreased risk of delivering an infant with a low birth weight (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.38-0.78) and placental infection (aOR, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.09-0.24).
Conclusion: We clearly evidenced that IPTp is substantially more beneficial than CQ for the prevention of malaria during pregnancy.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00274235.