Malaria 'hinders children's learning'

A new study has found that giving anti-malarial drugs to school children both reduces their risk of infection and improves "educational potential".

Research published in the Lancet medical journal examined the impact of insulin potential therapy (IPT), which involves the mass administration of anti-malarials to schoolchildren whether they are infected or not.

After a randomised placebo-controlled trial of IPT in western Kenya, it was found that "significant improvements" were seen in results from educational tests involving the children given IPT.

Dr Mathew Jukes, assistant professor from the Harvard Graduate School of Education said: "These results indicate that malaria infection may hinder learning and its prevention could be important to enhance the educational potential of schoolchildren."

It was recently revealed that India's first anti-malaria drug had passed clinical trials and is expected to be exported to the African market within the next five years, the Economic Times of India reported.

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