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Efficacy of Chloroquine for the Treatment of Uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in Honduras

2013; American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; Volume: 88; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4269/ajtmh.12-0671

1476-1645

Rosa Elena Mejía Torres, Engels Banegas, Meisy Mendoza, Cèsar Díaz‐Torné, Sandra Tamara Mancero Bucheli, Gustavo Fontecha, Md Tauqeer Alam, Ira F. Goldman, Venkatachalam Udhayakumar, José Leonel Zambrano Urbano,

Venomous Animal Envenomation and Studies

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.