The out-patient treatment of malaria with single dose intramuscular chloroquine in a hyperendemic area in West Africa

Abstract

1. (1) Forty African children aged from 4 to 27 months, all of whom were clinically sick with malaria (P. falciparum 30; P. malariae eight; Mixed two) were treated as out-patients with a single dose of intramuscular chloroquine. Parasite clearance and clinical cure followed within 2 days although in some cases follow-up showed a reappearance of parasitaemia after from 2 to 6 weeks, due either to reinfection or relapse. Analysis of all results (i.e. both primary and subsequent infections) showed a mean parasite clearance rate of 1.7 days. 2. (2) Various reasons for considering single dose intramuscular chloroquine therapy very useful in this type of patient are mentioned.