Possible chloroquine resistant malaria in Zambia

Abstract

In the fight against malaria the synthetic anti-malarials were greeted with great hopes. However,since their introduction there has been the disturbing evolution of strains of malaria resistant to them. In1947 resistance was reported to proguanil in Malaya and the Far East. In 1954 pyrimethamine resistance was reported in Kenya and afterwards in West Africa, South America and the Far East (Jones 1954, Lasch and N'Guyen 1965, W.H.O. Tech. Ser. 266). The devaluation of these potent prophylactic drugs was to be regretted, but far more alarming was the emergence of resistance to chloroquin. This was first reported in 1961 when, in Columbia, strains of Plasmodium falciparum were discovered to be resistant to therapeutic doses of chloroquin. Later it was reported in the Far East and more recently in West and Central Africa (Harinas uta et al. 1965). The size of the problem can be gauged from the report (Montgomery and Eyles) in 1962 of 10 % evidence of resistance in Commonwealth troops in Malaya, and in 1963 Contactos et al. confirmed that 4 out of 5 Asian strains suspected of resistance were definitely resistant to chloroquin in normally curative doses. In Central Africa the first report of malarial resistance to chloroquin came in 1966 from Malawi(Stevenson 1966) and we would like to report on a further three cases that we feel may well come under this category. These cases were all observed in the latter half of 1966 at the General Hospital in Broken Hill, Zambia.