The reality of using primaquine

Malaria Journal

Case Report

Germana Bancone¹  François Nosten²  Kathy L Burgoine³ 

[1] Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mae Sot, Tak, Thailand, 63110;Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand;Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mae Sot, Tak, Thailand, 63110;Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand;Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, Headington, Oxford, UK;Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mae Sot, Tak, Thailand, 63110;University College, The University of Oxford, Oxford, UK;

关键词: Malaria;    Chloroquine;    Vivax Malaria;    Acinetobacter Baumannii;    G6PD Deficiency;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-9-376

 received in 2010-10-18, accepted in 2010-12-27,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPrimaquine is currently the only medication used for radical cure of Plasmodium vivax infection. Unfortunately, its use is not without risk. Patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency have an increased susceptibility to haemolysis when given primaquine. This potentially fatal clinical syndrome can be avoided if patients are tested for G6PD deficiency and adequately informed before being treated.Case presentationA 35-year old male presented to our clinic on the Thai-Burmese border with a history and clinical examination consistent with intravascular haemolysis. The patient had been prescribed primaquine and chloroquine four days earlier for a P. vivax infection. The medication instructions had not been given in a language understood by the patient and he had not been tested for G6PD deficiency. The patient was not only G6PD deficient but misunderstood the instructions and took all his primaquine tablets together. With appropriate treatment the patient recovered and was discharged home a week later.ConclusionsWhilst primaquine remains the drug of choice to eradicate hypnozoites and control P. vivax transmission, the risks associated with its use must be minimized during its deployment. In areas where P. vivax exists, patients should be tested for G6PD deficiency and adequately informed before administration of primaquine.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Burgoine et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.