With 212 millions of malaria cases and 429 thousands death around the world, malaria remains the first endemic parasitemia. Most of malaria cases are counting in Sub-Saharan Africa. Under 5 years old childs and pregnant women are the most vulnerable populations.
In pregnant women, malaria is regarded like a serious illness which touch about 125 millions of those per year. The usage of Intermittent Preventive Treatment with Sulfadoxine-pyrymethamine (IPT-SP) is recommended by The World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent malaria in this aimed population.
To evaluate the effects of IPT-SP treatment against malaria during the pregnancy, plasma levels of ions (Na+, K+; Cl-) were measured on samples (n=484) coming from pregnant women (n=313) and non-pregnant (n=171) of Libreville city (Gabon).
The data shown that infected pregnant women (IPW: Na+=165.7 mmol/l; K+=0.49 mmol/l) and non-infected pregnant women (NIPW: Na+=181 mmol/l; K+=1.94 mmol/l), overall were hypernatremic and hypokalaemic; whereas non-infected women (NIW: Na+=151.8 mmol/l; K+=3.51 mmol/l) displayed a normal kalaemia and hypernatremia. Pregnancy did not influence chloremia.
Following the gestational age, the NIPW and IPW showed a significant increase of average natremia on the 2nd quarter than the 3rd quarter of pregnancy (NIPW: 189.5 mmol/l vs 176 mmol/l, *p<0.05); (IPW: 197 mmol/l vs 159.6 mmol/l, **p<0.01), respectively. The average kalaemia was also enhanced on 2nd quarter than the 3rd quarter in both groups (NIPW: 2.59 mmol/l vs 1.54 mmol/l, **p<0.01); (IPW: 2.3 mmol/l vs 0.89 mmol/l, **p<0.01).
Put on the IPT-SP treatment, treated pregnant women were not significantly different compared to non-treated pregnant women, concerning the average natremia, kalaemia and chloremia. In contrast, malaria induced more decrease of hypernatremia in non-treated IPW (Na+=152.8 mmol/l) than treated NIPW (Na+=180.68 mmol/l) and IPW (Na+=161.9 mmol/l), **p<0.01. The drop of hypokalaemia was also more pronounced in non-treated IPW (K+=0.45 mmol/l) than treated NIPW (K+=1.98 mmol/l) and IPW (K+=0.89 mmol/l) ***p<0.001.
These results revealed that IPT-SP treatment brakes the drop of hypernatremia and hypokalaemia; suggesting a beneficial protective effect of this treatment in pregnant women, to struggle against hyponatremia and hypokalaemia related to malaria.
