%0 Journal Article
%T Therapeutic efficacy of chloroquine for treatment of Plasmodium vivax malaria cases in Halaba district, South Ethiopia
%A Tsige Ketema
%A Kefelegn Getahun
%A Ketema Bacha
%J Parasites & Vectors
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1756-3305-4-46
%X Among 87 malaria patients enrolled in the study, only 80 of them completed the 28-days follow-up. Seven of them dropped from the study for different reasons. Among those study participants that completed their follow-up, 69 were classified under the category of adequate clinical and parasitological response (ACPR). However, the remaining 11 cases were considered as under treatment failure mainly due to recurrence of parasitemia on day 7 (four patients), day 14 (six patients), and day 21 (one patient). The age of all cases of treatment failures was found to be less than 20 years. The load of parasitemia of patients with treatment failure on day of admission (4709.4/¦̀l) was higher than day of recurrence (372.37/¦̀l). Parasite reduction ratio (PRR) of treatment failure cases was 12.6/¦̀l.This report revealed the rise in treatment failure (13% [95% CI = 0.074 - 0.217]) as compared to earlier reports from Ethiopia. It signals the spreading of chloroquine resistant P. vivax (CRPv) strains to malaria endemic areas of Ethiopia. It is recommended that all concerned bodies should act aggressively before further expansion of the current drug resistant malaria.The efficacies of anti-malarial drugs have been challenged by the emergence of drug resistant strains of Plasmodium parasites. For more than 50 years, chloroquine (CQ) was the drug of choice for effective treatment of uncomplicated malaria of all species [1]. Resistance to Plasmodium falciparium was first documented in 1986 from the border areas of Ethiopia [2] several years after the first report from Southeast Asia and South America in the late 1950 s [3], followed by gradual spread of the resistant strain throughout the country [4-7]. The high level of CQ resistance of the parasite necessitated change of choice from CQ to sulphadoxine pyramethamine (SP) in 1998. Faster drop in therapeutic efficacy of SP for the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria enforced the adoption of Artemether-lumefanthrine (Coartem£¿) (AL)
%U http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/content/4/1/46