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Ready-to-use therapeutic food for catch-up growth in children after an episode of Plasmodium falciparum malaria: an open randomised controlled trial.

ABSTRACT: Catch-up growth after an infection is essential for children to maintain good nutritional status. To prevent malnutrition, WHO recommends that children are given one additional healthy meal per day during the 2 weeks after onset of illness. We investigated to what extent ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) promotes catch-up growth in children after an acute, uncomplicated episode of Plasmodium falciparum malaria.We did an open randomised trial of children aged 6-59 months with confirmed malaria who attended a Médecins Sans Frontières-supported outpatient clinic in Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. All children received a clinical examination and malaria treatment. Patients were then randomly assigned to either an RUTF group, who received daily supplemental RUTF (a high-protein peanut-based paste) for 14 days, or to a control group, who received no supplemental food. Children were weighed at baseline and on days 14 and 28. The primary outcome was mean weight change after 14 days' RUTF. Analysis was by intention-to-treat.93 children received RUTF and 87 received no food supplementation. At day 14, the RUTF group had a mean weight gain of 353 g compared with 189 g in the control group (difference 164 [95%CI 52-277], p = 0.005). However, at day 28 there was no statistically significant difference between the groups (539 g versus 414 g, respectively [p = 0.053]). Similarly, rate of weight gain per kg bodyweight per day was significantly higher at day 14 in the RUTF group (2.4 g/kg per day versus 1.3 g/kg per day, p = 0.005) but at day 28 was 1.9 g/kg per day in the RUTF group versus 1.5 g/kg per day in the control group (p = 0.076).Children receiving RUTF for 14 days after effective treatment of an uncomplicated malaria episode had a faster weight gain than children not given supplementation, reducing the period that children were at risk of malnutrition.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00819858.

SUBMITTER: van der Kam S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3338820 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ready-to-use therapeutic food for catch-up growth in children after an episode of Plasmodium falciparum malaria: an open randomised controlled trial.

van der Kam Saskia S Swarthout Todd T Niragira Oscar O Froud Alyson A Sompwe Eric Mukomena EM Mills Clair C Roll Stephanie S Tinnemann Peter P Shanks Leslie L

PloS one 20120425 4

<h4>Background</h4>Catch-up growth after an infection is essential for children to maintain good nutritional status. To prevent malnutrition, WHO recommends that children are given one additional healthy meal per day during the 2 weeks after onset of illness. We investigated to what extent ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) promotes catch-up growth in children after an acute, uncomplicated episode of Plasmodium falciparum malaria.<h4>Methods</h4>We did an open randomised trial of children aged ...[more]

PMID: 22558108

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Project description:Malaria was eliminated in Tajikistan by the beginning of the 1960s. However, sporadic introduced cases of malaria occurred subsequently probably as a result of transmission from infected mosquito Anopheles flying over river the Punj from the border areas of Afghanistan. During the 1970s and 1980s local outbreaks of malaria were reported in the southern districts bordering Afghanistan. The malaria situation dramatically changed during the 1990s following armed conflict and civil unrest in the newly independent Tajikistan, which paralyzed health services including the malaria control activities and a large-scale malaria epidemic occurred with more than 400,000 malaria cases. The malaria epidemic was contained by 1999 as a result of considerable financial input from the Government and the international community. Although Plasmodium falciparum constituted only about 5% of total malaria cases, reduction of its incidence was slower than that of Plasmodium vivax. To prevent increase in P. falciparum malaria both in terms of incidence and territory, a P. falciparum elimination programme in the Republic was launched in 200, jointly supported by the Government and the Global Fund for control of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The main activities included the use of pyrethroids for the IRS with determined periodicity, deployment of mosquito nets, impregnated with insecticides, use of larvivorous fishes as a biological larvicide, implementation of small-scale environmental management, and use of personal protection methods by population under malaria risk. The malaria surveillance system was strengthened by the use of ACD, PCD, RCD and selective use of mass blood surveys. All detected cases were timely epidemiologically investigated and treated based on the results of laboratory diagnosis. As a result, by 2009, P. falciparum malaria was eliminated from all of Tajikistan, one year ahead of the originally targeted date. Elimination of P. falciparum also contributed towards speedy reduction of P. vivax incidence in Tajikistan.

Dataset Information

Ready-to-use therapeutic food for catch-up growth in children after an episode of Plasmodium falciparum malaria: an open randomised controlled trial.

Publications

Ready-to-use therapeutic food for catch-up growth in children after an episode of Plasmodium falciparum malaria: an open randomised controlled trial.

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