Chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria from Irian Jaya (Indonesian New Guinea)

Abstract

A strain of Plasmodium falciparum, transmitted in Irian Jaya (Indonesian New Guinea) was isolated in 1974 and sent to the University of Maryland for characterization in nonimmune volunteers. At Maryland the Indonesia (Whit.) strain, as it has been designated, was transmitted to colonized Anopheles stephensi. Prophylactically, it was not suppressed by proguanil hydrochloride 100 mg. daily. Curatively, parasitaemia was not cleared by treatment with 1-5 g. (base) in three days of chloroquine or amodiaquine (RII responses), nor by treatment with 150 mg. of pyrimethamine in three days (RIII), and some resistance was also shown to quinine. A single dose of 1-5 g. of mefloquine (WR 142,490) produced radical cure in the two patients treated with this new 4-quinolinemethanol compound.