QUESTION: Can Artesunate be followed by a Vitamin C bag with B-17 added, or do they (b-17 and Artesunate) have to be given different days? Also, would the patient still benefit from just 25 grams of Vitamin C after Artesunate, or does it only make sense to use a 50g dosage to enhance the Artesunate.
ANSWER: If done in series where ART is first then IVC the addition of B17 should be safe. We have done it in the Hospital outside the US and had no issues. As to the 25 versus higher doses of IVC with ART: the real answer is that nobody definitively knows – but based on what I have seen the synergy makes the potential for IVC at lower doses to be helpful possible. And, due to the differential c\kinetics of the IVC (especially when sequenced with ART and B17) it is ‘helpful’ at any dose. Currently we do shoot for higher than 25 grams but what you are doing is different than the standard ART-IVC protocol.