In Vivo Susceptibility of Plasmodium Vivax to Chloroquine in Southeastern Iran

Background: Plasmodium vivax is the predominant species causes of malaria with about 90% total annual reported malaria in Iran. This study conducted to determine the susceptibility of Plasmodium vivax isolates to chloroquine in Sistan and Balochistan Province, southeastern Iran.Methods: A total 270...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: S Dittrich, A Raeisi, S Shojaee, H Keshavarz, A Heidari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2012-06-01
Series:Iranian Journal of Parasitology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.tums.ac.ir/PdfMed.aspx?pdf_med=/upload_files/pdf/20952.pdf&manuscript_id=20952
Description
Summary:Background: Plasmodium vivax is the predominant species causes of malaria with about 90% total annual reported malaria in Iran. This study conducted to determine the susceptibility of Plasmodium vivax isolates to chloroquine in Sistan and Balochistan Province, southeastern Iran.Methods: A total 270 subjects with symptomatic malaria and confirmed P. vivax infection completed the designed 28-day in vivo study. The thick and thin film blood smears were screened for malaria parasites by microscopy. The nested PCR was applied using the Plasmodium 18 subunit ribosomal ribonu­cleic (Ssr RNA) genes for detecting mixed infections and diagnosis of parasites in the samples with low parasite on days 0, 5, 6, 7, and 28. Results: P. vivax was cleared in 15%, 50%, 95%, and 100% of patients on days 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively by microscopy assessment. Six patients were exhibited specific P. vivax band in nested PCR on day 5. No recurrence was observed on days 7, 14 and 28. Mean (±standard deviation) parasite clearance time was 2.41 (±0.8) days. Conclusion: P. vivax is still susceptible to chloroquine in Southeatern Iran. This finding is compati­ble with results of neighboring countries Pakistan and Afghanistan.
ISSN:1735-7020
2008-238X