Primaquine for preventing relapse in those treated with chloroquine for P.vivax malaria: 5 day regimen or 14?

Post by Liaquat Roopesh Johnson, currently employed as a member of the faculty in a private medical college in South India. Roopesh has a post-graduate degree in Community Medicine from the Christian Medical College, Vellore. 

When it comes to P. vivax malaria, many of us continue to follow the 5 day primaquine regimen. A recent update of  a Cochrane Systematic Review compares the 5 day primaquine regimen with the 14 day primaquine regimen recommended by the WHO. (Click here to go to a shorter summary)

Background

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there were between 135-287 million cases, and

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito,
 a known malarial vector (photo source: CDC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anopheles_stephensi.jpeg

between 473,000 – 789,000 deaths due to malaria in 2012. 90% of these deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, with under-five children accounting for 77% of the deaths.

Malaria is a major public health problem in Africa and Asia, where the disease is usually caused by either plasmodium falciparum or plasmodium vivax. About 9% of estimated cases globally are due to plasmodium vivax. However, outside the African continent, the proportion is 50%. Four countries account for more than 80% of estimated P. vivax cases- Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.

Primaquine for P.vivax malaria - 5 days or 14?: A short summary

Post by Liaquat Roopesh Johnson, currently employed as a member of the faculty in a private medical college in South India. Roopesh has a post-graduate degree in Community Medicine from the Christian Medical College, Vellore. 

The Anopheles mosquito.
Root word is Anofelis, in Greek,
which means good-for-nothing!  

When it comes to P.vivax malaria, many of us continue to follow the 5-day primaquine regimen. A recent update of  a Cochrane Systematic Review compares the 5 day primaquine regimen with the 14 day primaquine regimen recommended by the WHO. The following is a short summary of the review. (Click here to go to the detailed summary)

Malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Asia and South-East Asia. According to WHO estimates, there were between 135-287 million cases of malaria in 2012. Of the estimated 473,000-789,000 deaths due to malaria in the same year, 77% were children less than 5 years of age.