Chloroquine versus amodiaquine in the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in northeast India

Abstract

Amodiaquine is being used in India for presumptive treatment as an alternative to chloroquine in areas with chloroquine resistant P. falciparum. Keeping in view the toxicity of amodiaquine, studies have been undertaken to evaluate the advantage of the drug over chloroquine in the treatment of P. falciparum malaria. In vivo drug resistance studies were carried out in the states of Assam and Meghalaya in India. A total of 388 subjects have been studied to compare the efficacy of chloroquine and amodiaquine. The overall cure rate, degree of resistance, mean parasite clearance time and mean parasite recrudescence time were comparable for both the drugs, the differences being not statistically significant. The results indicate no advantage of amodiaquine in the treatment of patients with P. falciparum infection in chloroquine resistant areas of northeast India and development of cross resistance in P. falciparum to these 4-aminoquinolines is complete and parallel.