Plasmodium vivax malaria elimination: should innovative ideas from the past be revisited?

Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 2014 Aug;109(5):522-4. doi: 10.1590/0074-0276140240.

Abstract

In the 1950s, the strategy of adding chloroquine to food salt as a prophylaxis against malaria was considered to be a successful tool. However, with the development of Plasmodium resistance in the Brazilian Amazon, this control strategy was abandoned. More than 50 years later, asexual stage resistance can be avoided by screening for antimalarial drugs that have a selective action against gametocytes, thus old prophylactic measures can be revisited. The efficacy of the old methods should be tested as complementary tools for the elimination of malaria.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Antimalarials / administration & dosage*
  • Brazil
  • Chloroquine / administration & dosage*
  • Drug Resistance
  • Humans
  • Malaria, Vivax / drug therapy*
  • Malaria, Vivax / parasitology
  • Plasmodium vivax / drug effects*
  • Primaquine / administration & dosage*

Substances

  • Antimalarials
  • Chloroquine
  • Primaquine