Therapeutic effects of chloroquine in combination with quinine in uncomplicated falciparum malaria

Abstract

The efficacy and toxicity of oral quinine combined with oral chloroquine were studied in 50 Thai men with uncomplicated falciparum malaria. All were treated for 7 days with quinine sulphate (10 mg salt/kg every 8 h). Twenty-five of the patients, selected at random, were also given oral tetracycline (4 mg/kg four times daily) over the same period and the remainder were given chloroquine (25 mg base/kg over the first 3 days). There were no serious adverse effects. Overall fever-clearance times (FCT) and parasite-clearance times (PCT) in the chloroquine and tetracycline groups were not significantly different, with mean (S.D.) values of 51 (33) and 41 (27) h for FCT and 80 (25) and 83 (21) h for PCT, respectively. Most of the patients (18 in each group) were followed for > or = 2 months. Recrudescence rates (R1) were significantly higher in the chloroquine group than in the tetracycline group (39% v. 6%; P = 0.02), all recrudescences occurring within 4 weeks (18-25 days) of starting treatment. Subsequent parasitaemia with Plasmodium vivax, however, occurred less frequently in the chloroquine group (11%) than in the tetracycline group (33%) (P = 0.11) and took longer to develop in the chloroquine group [51 or 59 days compared with a mean (S.D.) value of 29 (10) days in the tetracycline group; P = 0.01]. Within the chloroquine group, FCT and PCT were both shorter in those with cure than in those with R1 resistance, with mean (S.D.) values of 41 (25) and 70 (33) h for FCT (P = 0.09) and 72 (20) and 100 (18) h for PCT (P = 0.01), respectively. Chloroquine does not potentiate the clinical response to quinine against resistant strains of uncomplicated falciparum malaria, nor does it convey any useful antipyretic effect.