Scientists & doctors please chime in - Is EPO a prescription given to malaria patients as a 2:05 marathoner claims?

Sounds feasible, it also helps prevent tooth decay if you put it in your toothpaste.

FWIW - med student, aka not quite a doctor

I just finished an infectious disease rotation and we actually had two kids come in with malaria within a week of each other. Long story short, neither of them got EPO as there was no reason they needed it. In theory, a high parasite load could cause a severe anemia to develop. This is more common in children than it is in adults. At least one of the medications used to treat severe malaria (artesunate) can also cause anemia. Treatment for severe anemia is more likely to be blood transfusions rather than EPO. I suppose EPO could be used, but I don't believe that would be anywhere in the realm of standard treatment.

If you Google "EPO malaria", a bunch of articles come up. I couldn't be bothered reading them, but judging from the titles it looks like there is at least some use of EPO for treating malaria. Make of that what you will.

Definitely seems plausible. Malaria destroys erythrocytes, so erythropoietin would be a logical drug to administer in order to bring about enough new production to offset the destruction of existing RBCs.

There are 4 types of malaria that affect humans. Two of those, Plasmodium vivax and plasmodium falciparum cause extreme anemia. This is partly because the malaria virus resides inside the red blood cells, which it destroys. The affected red blood cells also tend to pool and agglomerate as their often abnormal shape can prevent them from passing through capillaries etc. Also, the virus affects the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow.
It would seem that providing a patient with artificial EPO could help the combat severe and potentially deadly anemia by stimulating red blood cell production.

If an athlete has anemia, he is certainly in no position to be training or competing! Regarding alerting the anti-doping authorities, rules are the rules really. I'm pretty sure athletes are allowed to be prescribed life saving drugs (lol) but they have to alert WADA or whoever.

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Metric Miler wrote:

There are 4 types of malaria that affect humans. Two of those, Plasmodium vivax and plasmodium falciparum cause extreme anemia. This is partly because the malaria virus resides inside the red blood cells, which it destroys. The affected red blood cells also tend to pool and agglomerate as their often abnormal shape can prevent them from passing through capillaries etc. Also, the virus affects the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow.
It would seem that providing a patient with artificial EPO could help the combat severe and potentially deadly anemia by stimulating red blood cell production.

If an athlete has anemia, he is certainly in no position to be training or competing! Regarding alerting the anti-doping authorities, rules are the rules really. I'm pretty sure athletes are allowed to be prescribed life saving drugs (lol) but they have to alert WADA or whoever.

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In simple, yes. As outlined above, destruction of erythrocytes secondary to disease as well as medications to tx the disease both cause anemia. There is currently a movement for utilization of epo for tx of anemia in 3rd world countries secondary to malaria because of the sketchy blood available for transfusion.

I see what you did there! Very clever... verrry clever!

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Sounds feasible. wrote:

Sounds feasible, it also helps prevent tooth decay if you put it in your toothpaste.

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Sounds feasible. wrote:

Sounds feasible, it also helps prevent tooth decay if you put it in your toothpaste.

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3rd world probs wrote:

In simple, yes. As outlined above, destruction of erythrocytes secondary to disease as well as medications to tx the disease both cause anemia. There is currently a movement for utilization of epo for tx of anemia in 3rd world countries secondary to malaria because of the sketchy blood available for transfusion.

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Excuse me, parasite of course.

I'm an MD, and I have worked in Eldoret, Kenya. I very vividly recall a terribly ill young woman with severe falciparum malaria. She had a pulse of 180, lying still. Her hemoglobin was 1.8!!! Lowest I have ever seen. EPO was NOT part of her treatment, though others have pointed out that in cases such as this, it could be used.

Warning!...Warning!...Warning!...

Dennis Kimetto ... the world record holder at 2:02:57 in the marathon has a history of MALARIA!!!....

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/kenyas-dennis-kimetto-wins-chicago-145430963--spt.html;_ylt=AwrXgCMm4wZXnhYAkCKTmYlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTByZDNzZTI1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--


I also remember several other top tier Kenyans with a history of malaria...

...I think this may be an investigative project for Metric Miler and Clerk!..

.........Go readers!!!..........

No - he is a doper and this is an excuse.

In very severe malaria a patient may need a transfusion because hemoglobin is so low (

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3rd world probs wrote:

In simple, yes. As outlined above, destruction of erythrocytes secondary to disease as well as medications to tx the disease both cause anemia. There is currently a movement for utilization of epo for tx of anemia in 3rd world countries secondary to malaria because of the sketchy blood available for transfusion.

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pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

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3rd world probs wrote:

In simple, yes. As outlined above, destruction of erythrocytes secondary to disease as well as medications to tx the disease both cause anemia. There is currently a movement for utilization of epo for tx of anemia in 3rd world countries secondary to malaria because of the sketchy blood available for transfusion.

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Ok, all good. But.....


We're talking about a theoretical malaria-ravaged health condition to RUNNING A MARATHON at national elite times or better, in a matter of a few days.

That's the only possible way to test positive is to test very close to a non-micro dosage window, 2-3 days. Maybe the urine test has gotten better? Add a day or two.

If recovery is that instantaneous, then I'm happy to have my doubts removed. Otherwise, this excuse is fantastic.

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Oh my!

Here is a partial list of Kenyan runners who have had bouts of malaria:

1) Cosmos Ndeti
2) Moses Kiptanui
3) Paul Tergat
4) Dennis Kimetto


http://www.kenyarunners.com/pages/167372/index.htm


Keep reading the whole site page down!

...the Italian manager Dr. Gabriele Rosa (who was manager to Moses Tanui and Paul Tergat, and many other famous Kenyan runners both male and female) and EPO use rumors by top Kenyan runners is discussed a lot on this site!.....

The site http://www.kenyarunners.com/pages/167372/index.htm

...also states that EPO was available in Europe as early as 1984...which means all of my previous research which established the earliest verified use of EPO by any endurance athletes in any sports as 1986 may be wrong!...since I was basing my information on US availability of EPO..

...EPO may have been available in Europe earlier than the US...I will try to check..

This is very interesting if true...Alberto Cova won 1984 10K gold for Italy, and in 1988 Salvatore Antibo won 10k silver (gold was won by Boutayeb(sp) a Moroccan runner!)...and Gelindo Bordin of Italy won the 1988 marathon gold, and Boston 1990...

.......this story gets better every day!....

I was out of track by 84 but remember watching the 84 Oly 10k and thinking how easy Cova looked when he kicked at the end.