Therapeutic Efficacy of Chloroquine in Plasmodium Vivax at Health Centers in Jimma Town, South-West Ethiopia

Introduction : - Plasmodium vivax accounts for about 40% of all malaria infection in Ethiopia. Chloroquine remains the drug of choice for the treatment of p.vivax malaria in the country. Emerging resistance to chloroquine (CQ) by P.vivax threatens the health of the hundreds of thousands of people regularly exposed to the risk of infection with this organism. There was 14 years back failure alarm report of P.vivax to chloroquine but there has been no research in Jimma town which show extent of efficacy of medication. Therefore this study designed to assess the therapeutic efficacy of chloroquine used in the treatment of P.vivax malaria infection at health centers in Jimma town South West Ethiopia. Methods : An in vivo prospective drug efficacy study was conducted in Jimma town from February10 to May 09, 2011. Eight one Patients with microscopically confirmed P. vivax malaria, aged between 6 months and 60 years, were recruited and treated under supervision with Chloroquine (10mg/kg at 0 and 24 hrs followed by 5mg/kg at 48 hrs orally). Clinical and parasitological parameters were assessed during the 28 day follow-up period as per with methods for surveillance of antimalarial drug efficacy WHO 2009. Data was analyzed using SPSS, version 16.0. Results : Of the total 81 patients included in the study, 74 completed their 28-day follow-up. Despite of the 100% clearance of both fever and parasitemia on day 3, parasitaemia reappeared in two participants within the 28-days follow-up with the absence of malaria symptoms. Therefore, the cumulative incidence of treatment failure was 2.7% (with 95%CI -0.99 - 6.39) in study participants. Conclusions : chloroquine is still now efficacious drug to P.vivax in study area. However, reappearance of the parasite within the 28 days of follow-up in the study area signals the need for launching monitory activities for Chloroquine resistant by the P. vivax parasite. Keywords : malaria, p.vivax , chloroquine, therapeutic efficacy, Jimma.