Single dose tafenoquine for preventing relapse in people with plasmodium vivax malaria-an updated meta-analysis

Plasmodium vivax is a frequent cause of recurring malaria in endemic areas as in its latent stage it resides in liver, and is responsible for relapse. Treatment with 8 aminoquinoline Primaquine is given for 14 days, however studies have shown dismal results with adherence to therapy. A new long acting 8 aminoquinoline, Tafenoquine was introduced that showed efficacy and safety almost similar to Primaquine in a single dose regimen, hence giving hopes for improved compliance and help in eradicating malaria.

We searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared the efficacy of Tafenoquine with Primaquine or placebo. Our primary outcome was the recurrence of Plasmodium vivax parasitemia at 6 months and our safety outcomes included total number of adverse events as well as serious adverse events. We performed pooled data analysis by the random effects model and I2 was used to assess heterogeneity.

4 RCTs were included. Our pooled analysis showed that the number of episodes of recurrence at 6 months between Tafenoquine and Primaquine (RR = 1.08, 95% CI = 0.74-1.59), and between Tafenoquine and placebo (RR = 0.17, 95%CI = 0.03-1.11) was statistically insignificant. Comparison of serious adverse events did not show any significant risk associated with the use of Tafenoquine as compared to Primaquine when analyzed till day 29, which was the time period considered to show most probable drug associated events.

Tafenoquine as a single dose is an effective alternative to Primaquine for prevention of recurrence of P vivax malaria, with a reasonable safety profile.