A trial into a single combination drug for the treatment of malaria and pneumonia at the same time, to be administered on children under five years to reduce mortality rate, has begun at the Dodowa Health Research Centre in the Eastern region. Mr Sylvanus Afesorgbor, a Research Assistant, working on the antimalaria-antibiotics therapy at the Centre, said the treatment of conditions associated with fevers in children was usually skewed towards malaria. The Research Assistant was speaking to a group of journalists from the Africa Media and Malaria Research Network, who were on a visit to the Centre to acquaint themselves with on-going malaria projects. The visit was sponsored by the INDEPTH-Network and the Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance, an African-led body set-up with a 17-million dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr Afesorgbor said with the conclusion of the study, also known as the malaria-pneumonia project, doctors could combine the treatment of both malaria and pneumonia through a single regimen. He said the four-year study, which started in 2005, would involve 725 community-trained agents going into the Dangme-West community to administer the drugs on over a thousand children recruited for the study. It is expected that with the conclusion of the study, recommendations would be made for use of the treatment in the national health delivery programme for children. The Dodowa Research Centre is one of three research centres in Ghana researching into various malaria initiatives. Source: GNA