Fansidar-resistant Plasmodium falciparum infection from Tanzania

Abstract

Since 1978 several cases of chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria have been reported from East Africa (Petterson et al., 1981). Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (Fansidar) has been advised by W.H.O. (Wkly Epidem. Rec., 1982) for therapeutic management of these patients. We describe here a non-immune female expatriate from Tanzania suffering from falciparum malaria, which was resistant to chloroquine (R II-III). She had been working as a medical technician in the Morogoro region, a hyperendemic malarious area. After being treated with Fansidar she was transferred to the Netherlands where a recrudescence developed. She was then treated with a combination of quinine and tetracycline which resulted in the clearance of the parasitaemia. This is the third report of Fansidar-resistant falciparum malaria from Tanzania in the Netherlands (de Geus et al., 1982; Timmermans et al., 1982).