Chloroquine drug response and resistance in patients with malaria in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

摘要

Malaria is caused by infection with protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Plasmodium transmitted by female Anopheles species mosquitoes. The current study was designed to find resistance and response of chloroquine drug to malaria patients in Thall scout hospital, Khyber pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan from January 2011 to march 2015. The age of adult male patients having positive vivax malaria was 18 to 40 years. Both thick and thin slides were used for the diagnosis and species determination of malaria. The total number of patients included in the study were 518. Out of the 518 patients, 374 (72.2%) were treated with chloroquine and the remaining 144 (27.8%) were given arthemether/lumafantrine combination. 374 patients having positive malaria symptoms was treated with chloroquine, 171 (45.72%) were asymptomatic after 24 hours, 98 (26.2%) after 48 hours, 78 (20.86%) after 72 hours, while 27(7.22%) were found to be resistant to chloroquine. Out of the 144 patients having positive malaria treated with artemether/lumafantrine 62 (43.06%) were asymptomatic after 24 hours, 65(45.14%) after 48 hours, 13 (9.03%) after 72 hours while 4 (2.78%) had still positive symptoms of malaria.