Drug of choice for cerebral malaria is: March 2010

Ans. B: Quinine Chemotherapy for cerebral malaria (CM) primarily involves the use of quinine, for a patient with severe CM must be assumed to have chloroquine resistance. It is one of the four main alkaloids found in the bark of the Cinchona tree and is the only drug which over a long period of time has remained largely effective for treating the disease. Quinine has similar activity to chloroquine in that it is likely to interfere with the parasite's enzymatic digestion. Aemisinins have been shown to clear parasitemia and fever faster than quinine or chloroquine, but they had no effect on moality rates. It is a sesquiterpene lactone derived from Aemisia annua. The two most widely used are aesunate and aemether.