[In vivo amodiaquine sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum in the town of Cotonou and in the vicinity (Bénin)]

Abstract

In the coastal area of Benin, where chloroquine resistant Plasmodium falciparum strains occur, 152 children in the Guezo military camp (Cotonou) and 448 children in a fishermen village (Ekpe), on the southern bank of lake Nokoue, are examined. The falciparum malaria infected children (29 and 135 respectively) have received 35 mg/kg body weight of amodiaquine (Flavoquine) divided in three consecutive daily doses. Only one child among the 69 treated having a parasitemia higher than 1,000/mm3 failed to be cured. The amodiaquine tolerance is excellent for, respectively, 64% and 72% of the children. Minor side-effects are rapidly regressive. The frequency of conjonctival hyperhemia as an amodiaquine side-effect is nevertheless relatively high (14.7%) in the children regularly treated with this drug, e.g. those of the military camp, while it is rare (0.8%) in others, e.g. in the fishermen village children where amodiaquine is unusual as an antimalarial medicine.