Atovaquone-proguanil use in early pregnancy and the risk of birth defects

Atovaquone-proguanil exposure in pregnancy and risk for adverse fetal and infant outcomes: A retrospective analysis

BACKGROUND

Malaria in pregnancy can cause severe maternal and fetal complications. Chloroquine (CQ) and mefloquine (MQ) are recommended for chemoprophylaxis in pregnancy, but are not always suitable. Atovaquone-proguanil (AP) might be a viable option for malaria prevention in pregnancy, but more safety data are needed.

METHODS

Data for pregnancies and live births among active duty military women, 2003-2014, from the Department of Defense Birth and Infant Health Research program were linked with pharmacy data to determine antimalarial exposure. Multivariable Cox and logistic regression models were used to assess the relationship of antimalarial exposure with fetal and infant outcomes, respectively.

RESULTS

Among 198,164 pregnancies, 50 were exposed to AP, 156 to MQ, and 131 to CQ. Overall, 17.6% of unexposed pregnancies and 28.0%, 16.0%, and 6.1% of pregnancies exposed to AP, MQ, and CQ, respectively, ended in fetal loss (spontaneous abortion or stillbirth) (adjusted hazard ratios [aHR] = 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.87-2.46; aHR = 1.06, 95% CI 0.72-1.57; and aHR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.24-0.94, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

The small number of AP exposed pregnancies highlights the difficulty in assessing safety. While definitive conclusions are not possible, these data suggest further research of AP exposure in pregnancy and fetal loss is warranted.

TWITTER LINE

More research on fetal loss following atovaquone-proguanil exposure in pregnancy is warranted.

New guidelines for the prevention of imported malaria in France

Prevention of malaria is based on personal vector-control measures (PVCMs) to avoid mosquito bites at night and chemoprophylaxis if justified by the risk of contracting the disease. The most effective PVCM is the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets. The decision to prescribe chemoprophylaxis, mainly to prevent Plasmodium falciparum infection, depends on the benefit-risk ratio. Overall, the risk of contracting malaria is 1,000-fold lower during a stay in the tropical regions of Asia or the Americas than in sub-Saharan Africa. For "conventional" stays (less than one month with nights spent in urban areas) in low-risk settings in tropical Asia and America, the risk of being infected with Plasmodium parasites (≤1/100,000) is equivalent or lower than that of experiencing serious adverse effects caused by chemoprophylaxis. Preventive medication is therefore no longer recommended. By contrast, in other settings and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, chemoprophylaxis is the most effective measure against malaria. However, it is worth noting that no single preventive measure provides full protection. Regardless of the level of risk or chemoprophylaxis-related indication, protection against mosquito bites and rapid management of febrile illness after returning from an endemic area are also critical to prevent malaria. Finally, migrants of sub-Saharan origin visiting friends and relatives in their country of origin form a high-risk group who should be recommended chemoprophylaxis in the same way as any other travelers-with a preference for the least expensive molecules (doxycycline).

Safety of atovaquone-proguanil during pregnancy

BACKGROUND

Malaria during pregnancy increases the risk of maternal and foetal complications. There are very limited options for prophylaxis in pregnant travellers. Atovaquone-Proguanil (AP or Malarone®) is an effective and well-tolerated antimalarial medication, but is not recommended for use in pregnancy due to limited data on safety. Passively reported adverse event data may provide additional information on the safety of AP during pregnancy.

METHODS

We analysed adverse event data on pregnancy and birth outcomes following accidental exposures to AP during pregnancy, which were passively reported to GlaxoSmithKline LLC (GSK) between 13 May 1997 and 15 August 2017. Birth outcomes of interest included live birth, miscarriage, and stillbirth. Adverse outcomes of interest were defined as any of the following: small for gestational age (SGA), low birth weight (LBW, <2500 gm), congenital anomalies, and a composite 'poor live birth outcome,' including preterm birth (PTB), LBW or SGA.

RESULTS

Among 198 women who received AP during pregnancy or breastfeeding, 96.5% occurred in women taking malaria prophylaxis, and 79.8% of exposures occurred in the first trimester. Among 195 with available birth outcome data, 18.5% resulted in miscarriage and 11.8% were elective terminations. Available adverse outcomes included SGA in 3.5% (3/85), LBW in 7.0% of infants (6/86), and the composite 'poor live birth outcome' in 13.7% (14/102). Congenital anomalies were reported in 30/124 (24.2%), with no specific pattern to suggest an effect related to AP.

CONCLUSIONS

These data provide a description of outcomes in the pregnancies reported to this dataset, and it should be noted that there is likely a bias towards reporting cases resulting in poor outcomes. While there was no specific signal to suggest a teratogenic effect of AP, AP data during pregnancy were too limited to determine AP's safety with confidence. As inadvertent exposures are not infrequent, better data are needed.

Antimalarial drugs for treating and preventing malaria in pregnant and lactating women

INTRODUCTION

Malaria in pregnancy and postpartum cause maternal mortality and adverse fetal outcomes. Efficacious and safe antimalarials are needed to treat and prevent such serious consequences. However, because of the lack of evidence on fetal safety, quinine, an old and less efficacious drug has long been recommended for pregnant women. Uncertainty about safety in relation to breastfeeding leads to withholding of efficacious treatments postpartum or cessation of breastfeeding. Areas covered: A search identified literature on humans in three databases (MEDLINE, Embase and Global health) using pregnancy or lactation, and the names of antimalarial drugs as search terms. Adverse reactions to the mother, fetus or breastfed infant were summarized together with efficacies. Expert opinion: Artemisinins are more efficacious and well-tolerated than quinine in pregnancy. Furthermore, the risks of miscarriage, stillbirth or congenital abnormality were not higher in pregnancies exposed to artemisinin derivatives for treatment of malaria than in pregnancies exposed to quinine or in the comparable background population unexposed to any antimalarials, and this was true for treatment in any trimester. Assessment of safety and efficacy of antimalarials including dose optimization for pregnant women is incomplete. Resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in Plasmodium falciparum and long unprotected intervals between intermittent treatment doses begs reconsideration of current preventative recommendations in pregnancy. Data remain limited on antimalarials during breastfeeding; while most first-line drugs appear safe, further research is needed.

A survey on outcomes of accidental atovaquone-proguanil exposure in pregnancy

BACKGROUND

Malaria chemoprophylaxis options in pregnancy are limited, and atovaquone-proguanil (AP) is not recommended because of insufficient safety evidence. An anonymous, internet-based survey was disseminated to describe outcomes of pregnancies accidentally exposed to AP. Outcomes of interest included miscarriage (defined as pregnancy loss before 20 weeks), stillbirth (defined as pregnancy loss at or after 20 weeks), preterm birth or live birth prior to 37 weeks, and the presence of congenital anomalies.

RESULTS

A total of 487 women responded and reported on 822 pregnancies. Of the 807 pregnancies with information available on exposure and outcomes, 10 (1.2%) had atovaquone-proguanil exposure, all in the first trimester, and all resulted in term births with no birth defects.

CONCLUSIONS

Use of an anti-malarial not recommended in pregnancy is likely to occur before the woman knows of her pregnancy. This study adds to the limited evidence of the safety of AP in pregnancy. Further study on use of AP in pregnancy should be a high priority, as an alternative option for the prevention of malaria in pregnancy in non-immune travellers is urgently needed.

Travel During Pregnancy: Considerations for the Obstetric Provider

Importance

Travel among US citizens is becoming increasingly common, and travel during pregnancy is also speculated to be increasingly common. During pregnancy, the obstetric provider may be the first or only clinician approached with questions regarding travel.

Objective

In this review, we discuss the reasons women travel during pregnancy, medical considerations for long-haul air travel, destination-specific medical complications, and precautions for pregnant women to take both before travel and while abroad. To improve the quality of pretravel counseling for patients before or during pregnancy, we have created 2 tools: a guide for assessing the pregnant patient's risk during travel and a pretravel checklist for the obstetric provider.

Evidence Acquisition

A PubMed search for English-language publications about travel during pregnancy was performed using the search terms "travel" and "pregnancy" and was limited to those published since the year 2000. Studies on subtopics were not limited by year of publication.

Results

Eight review articles were identified. Three additional studies that analyzed data from travel clinics were found, and 2 studies reported on the frequency of international travel during pregnancy. Additional publications addressed air travel during pregnancy (10 reviews, 16 studies), high-altitude travel during pregnancy (5 reviews, 5 studies), and destination-specific illnesses in pregnant travelers.

Conclusions and Relevance

Travel during pregnancy including international travel is common. Pregnant travelers have unique travel-related and destination-specific risks. We review those risks and provide tools for obstetric providers to use in counseling pregnant travelers.

Babesiosis in pregnancy

BACKGROUND

Babesiosis is an emerging infectious disease caused by a tick-borne parasite that infects red blood cells. Pregnancy is a relatively immunocompromised state that can underlie severe manifestations of parasitic disease.

CASE

A healthy primiparous patient in the second trimester developed nonspecific symptoms after a tick bite. Evaluation by obstetrics, primary care, and neurology over 4 weeks yielded diagnoses of Lyme disease, upper respiratory infection, migraine, and medication overuse headache. Babesiosis was diagnosed only after she became acutely ill with hemolysis. She was treated with standard antibiotics and had an uncomplicated pregnancy and healthy newborn.

CONCLUSION

Diagnosis of babesiosis in pregnancy requires a high index of suspicion to ensure early treatment and optimal pregnancy outcomes.

Safety of antimalarial drugs exposure during early pregnancy

Introduction

Inadequately controlled malaria infection in pregnancy is associated with poor maternal and fetal outcomes. However, there are important questions about drug safety for mothers with malaria and their fetuses as, currently, there is limited safety data on many of the medications used. The objective of this review is to determine from published evidence the safety of antimalarial drugs exposure during early pregnancy, focusing on abortions, stillbirths, and congenital abnormalities.

Methods

We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Malaria in Pregnancy databases from their inception to June 2013, inclusive, for reports published in English only. Data were extracted on exposure to antimalarial drugs during early pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes including congenital abnormalities, stillbirth, and miscarriage.

Results

Twenty-two publications including one abstract with a total of 6,333 early pregnancy exposures to antimalarial agents used for treatment and/or prevention of malaria in pregnancy met the inclusion criteria. More than 40% of the pregnancies were exposed to mefloquine, about 10% to artemisinin based regimens and, 15.2% and 14.7% were exposed to chloroquine and quinine, respectively. A total of 1,199 adverse outcomes including abortions, stillbirths, and congenital abnormalities were reported. The reported absolute risks of adverse outcomes were similar for all the antimalarial exposures, but, in two publications, increased risk of stillbirths was linked to mefloquine exposure. Extensive heterogeneity and variability in the way in which authors assessed, recorded, and reported safety data precluded formal meta-analysis.

Conclusion

The absolute estimates of risks obtained in the included studies are difficult to interpret and the clinical significance of any association of adverse outcomes reported with antimalarial exposure in early pregnancy is uncertain. Well planned, executed, and analyzed studies are needed to confirm whether there is increased risk for adverse fetal outcomes attributable to exposure of first trimester pregnancies to antimalarials compared to relevant controls.

Advances in the treatment of malaria

Malaria still claims a heavy toll of deaths and disabilities even at the beginning of the third millennium. The inappropriate sequential use of drug monotherapy in the past has facilitated the spread of drug-resistant P. falciparum, and to a lesser extend P. vivax, strains in most of the malaria endemic areas, rendering most anti-malarial ineffective. In the last decade, a new combination strategy based on artemisinin derivatives (ACT) has become the standard of treatment for most P. falciparum malaria infections. This strategy could prevent the selection of resistant strains by rapidly decreasing the parasitic burden (by the artemisinin derivative, mostly artesunate) and exposing the residual parasite to effective concentrations of the partner drug. The widespread use of this strategy is somehow constrained by cost and by the inappropriate use of artemisinin, with possible impact on resistance, as already sporadically observed in South East Asia. Parenteral artesunate has now become the standard of care for severe malaria, even if quinine still retains its value in case artesunate is not immediately available. The appropriateness of pre-referral use of suppository artesunate is under close monitoring, while waiting for an effective anti-malarial vaccine to be made available.

Pregnancy course and outcome in women traveling to developing countries

BACKGROUND

The issue of travel to developing countries during pregnancy has not been sufficiently studied. The aim of this study is to investigate the rate, course, and outcome of pregnancies in women who traveled to developing countries while pregnant, or became pregnant during such travel.

METHODS

Women visiting two major travel clinics in Israel for consultation within the years 2004 to 2009, who were pregnant or declared an intention of becoming pregnant during travel were contacted. This was followed by a telephone interview by an obstetrician with those women who were actually pregnant. Background characteristics, morbidity during travel, and pregnancy course and outcome were collected.

RESULTS

Overall 52,430 travelers' records had been screened. Of these, we identified 49 women who were pregnant during their trip, but 3 declined participation. Of the remaining 46 women, 33 were pregnant at departure, and 13 conceived during travel. The incidence of pregnancy during travel was thus 0.93/1000 travelers. Thirty-three women traveled to East Asia, 8 to South and Central America, 5 to Africa. More than two thirds of women received pretravel vaccinations. Adherence to the World Health Organization recommendations regarding food and drink was high (87%) and travelers' diarrhea occurred in only 11% of women. Five of 22 women traveling to malarious areas had taken antimalarial prophylaxis. Six women required medical therapy during travel. Pregnancy outcome was not different from the normal population except for an unusually low rate of preterm delivery.

CONCLUSIONS

In this cohort, travel to developing countries was not associated with adverse pregnancy outcome. Larger studies are needed to support these findings.