Is chloroquine still effective for the treatment of vivax malaria in children in northern punjab of pakistan?

Introduction: Every year more than one billion persons in the world suffer from malaria. It kills about 1-3 million people in the world per year. In Pakistan estimated burden of malaria is 1.6 million cases each year. As most of people belong to poor socioeconomic group, it is essential that cost effective remedial measures must be taken. Moreover judicious use of antimalarials is required to avoid development of resistance. Objective: To determine the frequency of types of malaria and frequency of cases responding to chloroquine as first line treatment in vivax malaria in children of Northern Punjab of Pakistan. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: From Jun 2011 to Sept 2012 at Combined Military Hospital Gujranwala in children reporting from surrounding areas both rural and urban with clinical suspicion of malaria. Materials and Methods: During the study period, 175 children were admitted with clinical suspicion of malaria. Out of which 102 were smear positive for malarial parasites, 13 cases were excluded from the study as they lost to follow up, leaving a total of 89 children in the study. Patients under study remained admitted till the fever settled and malarial parasites were negative on smear. Chloroquine was used as first line treatment in cases with vivax malaria. On discharge from hospital, parents of children were advised fortnightly follow up for 28 days. Results: Out of 89 children approx 54% were males and 46% were females. Mean age of participants was 5.91 years. The minimum age was 1 year and maximum 11 years (SD +- 3.09) out of the 89 cases, 84 (94.3%) had vivax malaria, 2 (2.24%) had falciparum malaria and 3 (3.37%) had mixed infection. Our study showed that 79 (94%) cases of vivax malaria fully responded to chloroquine, 5 (6%) cases treated with Chloroquine reported with relapse. Conclusion: Chloroquine is still the drug of choice in vivax malaria. (author)