Please select the eligibility criteria that correspond to the clinical trial below.
Title: Mass-Drug Administration With a Gametocytocidal Drug Combination, a Model for a Transmission Blocking Vaccine
Brief Summary: In the 1950s, the WHO included mass drug administration (MDA) with antimalarial drugs as a tool for malaria control in 'exceptional conditions when conventional control strategies have failed'. Subsequently, MDA has received little attention until the introduction of artemisinin based combination therapy (ACT). The principle aim of MDA is to interrupt malaria transmission by clearing the population of sexual stage parasites, gametocytes, prior to the transmission season. Gametocytes are essential for propagation of the disease and elimination of gametocytes will result in a reduction in malaria transmission. As a consequence, a successful MDA will reduce the burden of disease in a population and is expected to have little influence on the development of protective immunity in areas of low transmission intensity. In Africa, only one large scale MDA study was conducted in the last 10 years. That study, conducted in The Gambia using sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) plus a single dose of artesunate (AS), failed to show a significant impact of MDA on malaria transmission. Possible reasons for this failure are the limited impact of the drug regimen (a single dose of AS) on malaria transmission, the incomplete coverage, the relatively high transmission intensity in the area and the migration of individuals between villages. Here, we propose to conduct an MDA study in an area of very low malaria transmission intensity in Tanzania. We use the highly active drug combination SP+AS (3 days) followed by a single dose of primaquine..


Options:
A: Inclusion criteria:

* Acute, uncomplicated P.falciparum malaria, microscopically confirmed infection.
* Temperature at screening of 37.5oC or over or confirmed history of fever within previous 24-hours.
* Weight 7.5kg or over , no upper weight limit.
* Screening haemoglobin (Hb) of 7g/dl, or more or haematocrit of 25% or over(if Hb not available at screening).
* Willingness to comply with the study visits and procedures, as outlined in the informed consent form.
* Written or oral witnessed consent obtained from subject, parent or guardian.
* Assent is given by a child aged 12 to \<18years, in addition to the consent of their parent or guardian.

Exclusion criteria:

* Features of severe/complicated falciparum malaria.
* Hypersensitivity to active substances (chlorproguanil, dapsone, artesunate), or excipients of the investigational products.
* Known allergy to biguanides, sulphones, sulphonamides or artemisinin derived products.
* Known history of G6PD deficiency.
* Infants with a history of hyperbilirubinaemia during the neonatal period.
* Evidence of any concomitant infection at the time of presentation (including P. vivax, P. ovale and P. malariae).
* Use of concomitant medications that may induce haemolysis or haemolytic anaemia from the WHO (World Health Organization) list of essential drugs.
* Any other underlying disease that may compromise the diagnosis and the evaluation of the response to the study medication (including clinical symptoms of immunosuppression, tuberculosis, bacterial infection; cardiac or pulmonary disease).
* Malnutrition, defined as a child whose weight-for-height is below -3 standard deviations or less than 70% of the median of the NCHS/WHO normalised reference values
* Treatment within the past three months with mefloquine or mefloquine-sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine; twenty-eight days with sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine, sulfalene/pyrimethamine, lumefantrine or artemether/lumefantrine, amodiaquine, atovaquone or atovaquone/proguanil, halofantrine; 14-days with chlorproguanil/dapsone, or 7-days with quinine (full course), proguanil, artemisinin, tetracycline doxycycline or clindamycin.
* Positive sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine urine screen for 'unknown' antimalarial drug use in prior 28-days.
* Use of an investigational drug within 30 days or 5 half-lives whichever is the longer.
* Previous participation in this study.
* Female subjects of child-bearing potential who have had a positive pregnancy test at enrolment, or do not give their consent to take a pregnancy test.
* Female subjects who will be breast-feeding an infant for the duration of the study.
B: Inclusion Criteria:

* infection with P.falciparum detected by PCR

Exclusion Criteria:

* pregnancy
* severe anaemia
* fever or other signs of illness
* history of allergy to sulfa drugs
* presence of other species of Plasmodium detected by microscopy
C: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age \>/= 1 year and \</= 10 years
* Weight over 10kg
* Fever \>38 degrees C (tympanic) or history of fever in the last 24 hours
* P. falciparum parasitaemia \<500 000/µl
* Normal G6PD enzyme function

Exclusion Criteria:

* Enrolled in another study
* Evidence of severe illness/ danger signs
* Known allergy to study medications
* Haemoglobin \< 8g/dL)
* Started menstruation
* Pregnancy or breastfeeding
* Primaquine taken within the last 4 weeks
* Blood transfusion within the last 90 days
* Non-falciparum malaria co-infection
D: Inclusion Criteria:

* permanent resident of the research area
* age \>1 years

Exclusion Criteria:

* severe anemia
* pregnancy

Answer: D