Drug resistance of malaria parasites. 2. Clinical aspects, drug treatment and prevention of drug-resistant malaria
Rabinovich, S.A.
Meditsinskaia Parazitologiia i Parazitarnye Bolezni 45(6): 731-737
1976
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-8326 PMID: 799242 Document Number: 109681
The level and the range of drug resistance vary in different species and geographical strains. From the clinical point of view, tropical malaria, resistant to chloroquine and very often multiple in nature, constitutes the main problem. When the parasite is drug resistant, the primary manifestations of the disease follow a progressive course, which in tropical malaria may be lethal, while chemoprophylaxis is ineffective. No universal method of treatment and chemoprophylaxis of drug-resistant tropical malaria exists. The present paper contains a review of drugs used for this purpose. As a rule, quinine and pyrimidines in combination with sulfonamides and sulfones are used. Tetracyclines and clindamycins possess some degree of activity, but they are not always effective and their use has certain limitations. Active search for new drugs is under way. Of the latter, mephloquine, a 4-quinoline methanol derivative, is considered to be the most promising. For the purpose of devising methods to overcome or prevent drug-resistance, detailed study of its mechanisms is of primary importance.