Publication: High efficacy of primaquine treatment for plasmodium vivax in western Thailand
Issued Date
2016-11-01
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ISSN
00029637
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2-s2.0-84994298836
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Mahidol University
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SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Vol.95, No.5 (2016), 1086-1089
Suggested Citation
Rhea J. Longley, Piyarat Sripoorote, Pornpimol Chobson, Teerawat Saeseu, Chonlaphat Sukasem, Suparat Phuanukoonnon, Wang Nguitragool, Ivo Mueller, Jetsumon Sattabongkot High efficacy of primaquine treatment for plasmodium vivax in western Thailand. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Vol.95, No.5 (2016), 1086-1089. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.16-0410 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/40716
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Title
High efficacy of primaquine treatment for plasmodium vivax in western Thailand
Abstract
© 2016 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Primaquine is the only licensed antimalarial drug that is capable of clearing dormant Plasmodium vivax liver stage parasites. To date, there is no clear evidence of resistance of the liver stage parasite against this drug, because of the difficulty in ascertaining the cause of recurrent infection. We followed 52 Thai P. vivax patients for 9 months after directly observed treatment of 15 mg primaquine daily for 14 days. Blood samples taken at 2-4 weekly intervals were assessed by microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of parasites. Only four of 52 (7.7%) volunteers had recurrent P. vivax infections, all at least 8 weeks after treatment. This demonstrates that primaquine retains a high efficacy in this population. Although a risk of new infections could not be ruled out, parasite genotyping at two polymorphic markers suggested a high probability of late relapsing infections in these volunteers. Continued monitoring of primaquine efficacy in this region is advisable.