Falciparum Malaria

Malaria is caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium and it is the most important parasitic disease in terms of mortality and morbidity. Estimates of 247 million malaria cases and 619.000 deaths worldwide were reported by WHO for the year 2021 (1). Plasmodium falciparum can lead to severe malaria and accounts for 90% of malaria deaths that mainly occur in children below the age of 5 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. A simplified treatment regimen, ideally a single-day cure (or at most 2-day dosing regimen), of uncomplicated malaria due to P. falciparum would be the magic in the antimalarial armamentarium. Improving treatment adherence is one of the key factors in reducing mortality and morbidity and also the transmission of malaria, and such a regimen would substantially increase adherence. To find a new non-artemisinin combination therapy with a shorter regimen, ideally, a single-dose cure, with low resistance potential would be the aim. The two compounds tested here are ZY19489, a triaminopyrimidine, and ferroquine (FQ), a next-generation 4-aminoquinoline. Both compounds show unique features in terms of long half-life, and activity against current drug-resistant strains. Therefore, the main goal of this clinical trial is to assess the safety of the ZY19489-FQ combination given as a 1- or 2-day dose regimen.

Mozambique is among the ten countries with the highest burden of malaria worldwide, with an estimated 10.3 million cases in 2021. Malaria transmission is highly heterogeneous across the country, with high burden in the north and very low burden in the south, therefore requiring different strategies for effective control and potential elimination. The GenMoz study (NCT05306067, March 2021-Feb 2024) operationalized a functional malaria molecular surveillance (MMS) system to generate reliable and reproducible temporal genomic data to monitor the effectiveness of rapid diagnostic tests and antimalarials, as well as to continuously characterize transmission levels and sources. The National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) is starting a new strategic cycle (2023-2030) with a plan that includes genomic surveillance for guiding programmatic decisions on six key antimalarial tools : 1. Malaria diagnostics using rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) based on histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2); 2. Treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), including diversification schemes to reduce emergence of resistance; 3. Chemoprevention for pregnant women and children; 4. R21/Matrix-M vaccine rollout; 5. Individual-level interventions in very low transmission settings and 6. Vector control. In Phase 2, the investigators aim to integrate MMS into this wider surveillance framework and scale MMS in Mozambique for quality, timely and appropriate optimization of the public health benefits of the NMCP 2023-2030 strategy in both a proactive and adaptive manner, selecting the combinations of interventions that maximize the impact at the individual and community level.