Clinical evaluation of antimalarial regimens in Japan

The actual situation of the treatment of malaria for the past 10 years in Japan was investigated and analyzed. As a result, it was revealed that there were not a few cases which had been treated improperly probably because of the difficulty of getting antimalarial agents. Moreover, it was made clear that the death rate on falciparum malaria was constantly high, 8.7%, as expected and the relapse rate of vivax malaria was still as high as 18.0%. There was the recrudescence of falciparum malaria at 8.1%, maybe because of the influence of the prevalence of the drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The trouble in getting antimalarial agents has been overcome since 1980. Study Group on Pharmacotherapy of Imported Tropical Diseases was organized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1980, and antimalarial agents have been supplied free of charge through the Study Group for the treatment of the disease. The number of cases of imported malaria has increased in our country. There are a lot of problems to be solved quickly to cope with the situation: people who travel abroad should be enlightened on the danger of the infection of malaria and take prophylactics for the disease and physicians should get familiar with the disease being supplied with information about it.