Open AccessEfficacy of Chloroquine for the Treatment of Uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in Honduras
Author(s) -
Rosa Elena Mejía Torres,
Engels Banegas,
Meisy Mendoza,
Cèsar DíazTorné,
Sandra Tamara Mancero Bucheli,
Gustavo Fontecha,
Md Tauqeer Alam,
Ira F. Goldman,
Venkatachalam Udhayakumar,
José Leonel Zambrano-Urbano
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
american journal of tropical medicine and hygiene
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.015
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1476-1645
pISSN - 0002-9637
DOI - 10.4269/ajtmh.12-0671
Subject(s) - malaria , chloroquine , plasmodium falciparum , parasitemia , clearance , medicine , genotype , virology , immunology , biology , gene , biochemistry , urology
Chloroquine (CQ) is officially used for the primary treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Honduras. In this study, the therapeutic efficacy of CQ for the treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in the municipality of Puerto Lempira, Gracias a Dios, Honduras was evaluated using the Pan American Health Organization-World Health Organization protocol with a follow-up of 28 days. Sixty-eight patients from 6 months to 60 years of age microscopically diagnosed with uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria were included in the final analysis. All patients who were treated with CQ (25 mg/kg over 3 days) cleared parasitemia by day 3 and acquired no new P. falciparum infection within 28 days of follow-up. All the parasite samples sequenced for CQ resistance mutations (pfcrt) showed only the CQ-sensitive genotype (CVMNK). This finding shows that CQ remains highly efficacious for the treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in Gracias a Dios, Honduras.
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