SYDNEY: Australian regulators have given their first approval to a new combination medication therapy for a kind of malaria in children aged 2 to 16.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Medicines for Malaria Venture collaborated to create the single-dose tafenoquine (Kozenis), which is used in conjunction with traditional chloroquine therapy (MMV).

The approval includes a unique 50 mg dispersible tablet that can be dissolved in water to treat malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium vivax, which is most prevalent in Southeast Asia, South America, and the Horn of Africa. It is far easier for children to take than the current seven- or fourteen-day tablet course designed for adults.

Malaria is one of the worst infectious diseases. In 2019, 229 million new infections were reported, with 558,000 fatalities. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of deaths increased to 627,000 in 2020.

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