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Further Studies in the Chemotherapy of Plasmodium hexamerium Infections in Ducks
Author(s) -
MANWELL REGINALD D.,
KHABIR PARVIZ A.
Publication year - 1954
Publication title -
the journal of protozoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.067
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1550-7408
pISSN - 0022-3921
DOI - 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1954.tb00801.x
Subject(s) - proguanil , parasitemia , chloroquine , pyrimethamine , dose , clearance , malaria , medicine , chemotherapy , biology , pharmacology , immunology , plasmodium falciparum , urology
Five standard antimalarial drugs have been tested, in the present study, against trophozoite‐induced Plasmodium hexamerium infections in ducks; namely, chloroquine, proguanil (paludrine), pyrimethamine (daraprim), pentaquine and isopentaquine. (Four others were used previously.) Two doses daily were given for a treatment period of 7 days. The effectiveness of treatment was measured in terms of its ability to suppress parasitemia and to completely prevent relapse ( i.e. to achieve sterilization). Of the five drugs, the two pentaquines were about equally effective. They rapidly cleared the blood of parasites, and completely aborted the infection in nearly all cases. The other three drugs failed to sterilize any of the cases treated, and were not even effective as suppressants. The pentaquines, however, proved quite toxic to the host and, even in the dosages used, retarded the normal rate of weight gain. Pyrimethamine had a similar effect, and in addition interfered with normal feathering. Neither of these effects, whether due to pentaquines or pyrimethamine, was recovered from after treatment stopped.