[Effects od iron supplementation on malaria infection]

Abstract

An iron supplementation trial had been performed in a southern village of Togo during the rainy season when occurs malaria transmission. 241 infants from 6 to 36 months old were matched in two randomized groups. The first one (G1) received oral iron supplementation every day during three months. The second group (G2) received placebo. Tablet administration was double blind made. A third group (G3) had been created from two others with anaemic infants and received daily iron supplementation. Three biological and clinical surveys were done, i) before the trial (T0), ii) after supplementation (T3) and iii) six months later (T9). Several parameters were studied including malaria parasite density and titration of malaria antibodies. For each group the prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum was identical in the three surveys. Means of parasite density decreased during and after rainy season but variations were not significant. High parasitaemia frequency (i.e. greater than 10,000 parasitized red cells per mm3, considered as pyrogenic threshold) were identical in all groups and decreased after rainy season. Antibodies titers did not show any variation in the three groups. It seems that iron supplementation did not modify in 6 to 36 months infants the susceptibility to malaria nor the organism response.