Trial reportMalaria journal2011
Paracetamol versus placebo in treatment of non-severe malaria in children in Guinea-Bissau: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Malaria journal, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00137566 (The Effect of Paracetamol in the Treatment of Non-severe Malaria in Children in Guinea-Bissau), which is not on this map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effect of Paracetamol in the Treatment of Non-severe Malaria in Children in Guinea-Bissau
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antipyretic measures for treating fever in malaria.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012Pooled it
- Acetaminophen as a Renoprotective Adjunctive Treatment in Patients With Severe and Moderately Severe Falciparum Malaria: A Randomized, Controlled, Open-Label Trial.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2018Trial
- Pharmacokinetic properties of intramuscular versus oral syrup paracetamol in Plasmodium falciparum malaria.Malaria journal · 2016Trial
- Temporal and seasonal changes of genetic polymorphisms associated with altered drug susceptibility to chloroquine, lumefantrine, and quinine in Guinea-Bissau between 2003 and 2012.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2015Trial
- Population Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Paracetamol in Malaysian Patients With Plasmodium knowlesi Malaria.CPT: pharmacometrics & systems pharmacology · 2026Article
- Protocol for a magnetic resonance imaging study of participants in the fever RCT: Does fever control prevent brain injury in malaria?PloS one · 2024Article
- Protocol for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Study of Participants in the Fever Randomized Controlled Trial: Does fever control prevent brain injury in malaria?medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Article
- Severe acute malnutrition and infection.Paediatrics and international child health · 2014Review
- Malaria transmission in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau between 1995 and 2012: malaria resurgence did not negatively affect mortality.PloS one · 2014Article
- Malaria in children.Mediterranean journal of hematology and infectious diseases · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe current guidelines for treatment of malaria include paracetamol to children with fever. No convincing evidence for the beneficial effects of this practice exists. Studies show that time to parasite clearance is significantly longer in children treated with paracetamol, which questions the policy. Whether this is of clinical importance has not been investigated.
methodsChildren with Plasmodium falciparum monoinfection and ≥20 parasites per 200 leucocytes at the Bandim Health Centre, Guinea-Bissau were randomized to receive paracetamol or placebo together with chloroquine for three days in a double blind randomized study. Temperature and symptoms were recorded twice daily during treatment and on day 3. The participants were interviewed and a malaria film taken once weekly until day 35. The data is in the form of grouped failure-times, the outcome of interest being time until parasitaemia during follow-up. Mantel-Haenszel weighted odds ratios are given. Other differences between and within the two groups have been tested using the Chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U test.
resultsIn the evening of the day of inclusion, the temperature was slightly, but statistically insignificant, higher in the placebo group and significantly more children complained of headache. At no other time was a significant difference in temperature or symptoms detected. However, 6 children from the placebo-group as compared to two children from the paracetamol-group were admitted to hospital with high fever and convulsions by day 3. No differences in the cumulative percentages of children with adequate clinical and parasitological response were found in the intention-to-treat analysis or in the per-protocol analysis.
conclusionFewer children had early treatment failure and the mean temperature was slightly lower in the afternoon on day 0 in the paracetamol group. However, the cumulative adequate clinical and parasitological cure rates were not significantly different during the period of study. It is doubtful whether adding paracetamol to the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in children is beneficial.
trial registrationNCT00137566.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.