Title: Potentialities of monthly doses of camoquin and a gametocidal drug in malaria control
Abstract: Iso-pentaquine eliminated P. falciparum gametocytes in four children within 5 days. During a relapse treated with chloroquine alone, they showed numerous gametocytes for 4 weeks. In adults, 45 to 60 mg. of primaquine are required to produce a gametocidal effect similar to that of 20 mg. of iso-pentaquine. Camoquin has no demonstrable direct effect on P. falciparum gametocytes. By means of a lottery to stimulate co-operation of the mothers and a rapid if forcible method of administering the drugs, 114 children, 6 months to 6 years of age, were given one to three treatments of 100–200 mg. camoquin and 15–30 mg. of primaquine at monthly intervals.At the height of the malaria season, 83 of these children who had received two or three doses showed no falciparum parasites and only 15 per cent. showed vivax parasites. On the same day in the same area, of 31 untreated children 19.7 per cent. showed falciparum parasites and 41.9 per cent. vivax parasites. Some difficulties inherent in the behaviour of the falciparum infection are briefly mentioned to explain paucity of gametocyte carriers in places investigated. These observations suggest that falciparum malaria could be eliminated and vivax and quartan greatly reduced by monthly doses of camoquin and primaquine, and that this method should be tried in a large scale experiment with 2,000–5,000 subjects over a 2-year period. A single adult dose of 450 mg. camoquin and 60 mg. primaquine monthly for 3 months should provide considerable protection in epidemics that occur following the cessation of any long term insecticidal programme.It may be possible to discontinue the primaquine after the first 3 months.
Publication Year: 1955
Publication Date: 1955-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 4
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