ArticleMalaria journal2025
Pre-referral injectable artesunate and outcomes of childhood severe malaria at a secondary health facility in North-central Nigeria: a cross-sectional study.
Article in Malaria journal, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe use of pre-referral injectable artesunate is among the strategies adopted to improve the outcome of childhood severe malaria in Nigeria. However, the extent of its implementation and impact on outcomes remain unknown. This study assessed the pre-referral treatment with injectable artesunate for severe malaria, associated factors, and hospitalisation outcomes (discharge or death) among a cohort of children managed at a secondary health facility in Nigeria.
methodsThis cross-sectional study included children diagnosed with severe malaria admitted to a secondary health facility in Nigeria. Data on pre-referral treatment with injectable artesunate and other medications, demographics, clinical features, and outcomes among children were prospectively gathered and analysed them using SPSS.
resultsOf the 137 children recruited, 7(6.3%) received pre-referral injectable artesunate; other medications received included antipyretics (53;47.3%), antibiotics (16;14.3%), artemisinin-based combination therapy (14;12.5%), and supplements (11;9.8%). Pre-referral injectable artesunate treatment was not associated with age, sex, and socioeconomic status (p > 0.05), and most of the clinical features except impaired consciousness with an adjusted odds ratio of 17.876 (95% CI 2.050 to 155.883). Of the 137 children, two deaths occurred, with a crude mortality rate of 1.5% (95% CI 0.04-5.2%). Pre-referral injectable artesunate treatment was not associated with hospitalisation durations and outcomes (death or discharge).
conclusionThis study showed a very low uptake of pre-referral injectable artesunate among children with severe malaria, and the presence of impaired consciousness increased the odds of a child receiving injectable artesunate. In addition, most children with severe malaria had received pre-hospitalisation medications that were mostly inappropriate.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.