Monitoring the chloroquine sensitivity of Plasmodium vivax from Calcutta and Orissa, India

Chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium vivax malaria was first reported in India in 1995. This report led to the round-the-year monitoring, in Calcutta (West Bengal) and Mayurbhanj district (northern Orissa), of the in-vivo sensitivity of local P. vivax to chloroquine (CQ). Between January 1998 and December 2001, 800 cases with microscopically confirmed P. vivax malaria were enrolled in the study. Each was given CQ in the regimen recommended both by the Government of India and the World Health Organization (i.e. a total of 25 mg/kg, over 3 days). Only six cases, of the 480 who completed the scheduled 28 days of follow-up, failed to clear their parasitaemias by day 5. Even these six cases had only low-level parasitaemias on day 5, and all were aparasitaemic by day 7. In the study area, despite the wide-spread abuse of CQ and the increasingly frequent reports of CQ-resistant P. falciparum, CQ appears to remain an effective drug in the treatment of P. vivax.