Effect of adding azithromycin to the antimalarials used for seasonal malaria chemoprevention on the nutritional status of African children

Objectives: Mass administration of azithromycin has reduced mortality in children in sub-Saharan Africa but its mode of action is not well characterised. A recent trial found that azithromycin given alongside seasonal malaria chemoprevention was not associated with a reduction in mortality or hospital admissions in young children. We investigated the effect of azithromycin on the nutritional status of children enrolled in this study.
Methods: A total of 19 578 children in Burkina Faso and Mali were randomised to receive either azithromycin or placebo alongside seasonal malaria chemoprevention with sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine plus amodiaquine monthly for three malaria transmission seasons (2014–2016). After each transmission season, anthropometric measurements were collected from approximately 4000 randomly selected children (2000 per country) at a cross-sectional survey and used to derive nutritional status indicators. Binary and continuous outcomes between treatment arms were compared by Poisson and linear regression.
Results: Nutritional status among children was poor in both countries with evidence of acute and chronic malnutrition (24.9–33.3% stunted, 15.8–32.0% underweight, 7.2–26.4% wasted). There was a suggestion of improvement in nutritional status in Burkina Faso and deterioration in Mali over the study period. At the end of each malaria transmission season, nutritional status of children did not differ between treatment arms (seasonal malaria chemoprevention plus azithromycin or placebo) in either the intention-to-treat or per-protocol analyses (only children with at least three cycles of SMC in the current intervention year).
Conclusions: The addition of azithromycin to seasonal malaria chemoprevention did not result in an improvement of nutritional outcomes in children in Burkina Faso and Mali.