Health Centres - Paludrine
How does it work?
Paludrine tablets contain the active ingredient proguanil hydrochloride, which is an antimalarial medicine. It is used to prevent malaria.
Malaria is a potentially fatal disease caused by various types of parasites known as Plasmodium. Plasmodium are carried by mosquitoes and are injected into the bloodstream during a bite from an infected mosquito. Once inside the blood the parasite travels to the liver, and then out again into the bloodstream where it invades the red blood cells and reproduces. An actual attack of malaria develops when the red blood cells burst, releasing a mass of parasites into the bloodstream. The attacks do not begin until a sufficient number of blood cells have been infected with parasites.
Proguanil hydrochloride prevents malaria by stopping the parasite from reproducing once it is inside the red blood cells. It does this by blocking the action of a compound that is found in the Plasmodium parasite. This compound is an enzyme called dihydrofolate reductase, and is involved in the reproduction of the parasite.
Dihydrofolate reductase normally converts folic acid into folinic acid in the parasite, which is a step essential for the parasite to produce new genetic material (DNA). New DNA is necessary for the parasite to reproduce. By blocking it's production, proguanil prevents any malarial parasites that have entered the red blood cells from reproducing, increasing in number and causing malaria attacks.
Proguanil hydrochloride is usually taken in combination with another antimalarial medicine called chloroquine to prevent malaria. However, the malaria parasite is resistant to these medicines in certain areas of the world, and it is important to check with your pharmacist which medicines are currently recommended to prevent malaria in the country you are travelling to. You can also check in the travel section of this site.
If proguanil is recommended it should preferably be started a week before travel to the malarious region, but if this is not possible, then at least two days before. It should then be taken throughout the stay, so that if you are bitten by an infected mosquito there will be medicine in your blood to prevent malaria developing. Proguanil should be continued for a further four weeks after leaving the malarious area, so that there is still medicine in the blood to kill any parasite that is released from the liver in this time. You should try and take the medicine regularly at the same time every day.
What is it used for?
- Prevention of malaria (proguanil can be bought from pharmacies without a prescription for this purpose; it is not prescribable on the NHS for preventing malaria).
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