Treatment failure rates on
day 14 were 0% in the artesunate plus sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine group and 8.7% in the sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine
group (P 0.12). Treatment failure rates on day 28 were 4.4% and 15.2%, respectively (P 0.16). Relative risk of
treatment failure at 28 days was 0.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.1–1.3). Mean fever clearance time (1.3 versus
1.7 days) and mean parasite clearance time (1.4 versus 2.0 days) were both faster in the artesunate plus sulfadoxinepyrimethamine
group than in the sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine group (P 0.08 and P 0.0001, respectively). Only
20 (39.2%) of 51 patients treated with artesunate plus sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine were still parasitemic on day 1
compared with 45 (86.5%) of 52 patients treated with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine alone (P 0.000001, relative risk
[RR] 0.4, 95% CI 0.3–0.6).