Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) in Cameroon: systematic review and meta-analysis (2006-2018)

Objective: Artemisinin combination therapies(ACT) for the treatment of malaria have shown very high cure rates and with little side effects since it was introduced less that two decades ago. Continuous monitoring of these drugs could  sustain this efficacy . In this study we have collected results from many studies that evaluate the cure rates and safety of these drugs to estimate the combined cure rates of these drugs from 2006 to 2018. Methods: we searched published articles from databases from all known websites that publish articles. We also included  unpublished data from dissertations. we used R software version 3.5.2 to do our analysis. There were differences in the studies we evaluated and therefore  we used a method of combining the results from non similar studies called Random effects Model. Results:  We evaluated 17 studies with about  3,747 participants in total. The combined cure rates of the ACTs  was 98%. The 1st line drugs (Artesunate-Amodiaquine and Arthemeter Lumefantrine) have a combined cure rate estimate of 98.88%  and 97.17%  respectively. The few side effects were mostly, diarrhea, abdominal pain,  nausea and vomiting, headache and dizziness. Conclusion: Artemisinin drugs in Cameroon over the past 10 years still have high cure rates with little or no side effects.