Quinine for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in eastern Sudan

An observational clinical trial was conducted in New Haifa, eastern Sudan, in November and December 2003. Sixty-two patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria were treated with oral quinine (10mg/kg thrice daily for 7 d); 47 (76%) of these patients were followed-up to day 28, and 5 (10.6%) of them appeared to have late treatment failures. The parasitological failures were early R1 in two (4.3%) patients and late R1 in three (6.4%) patients. The reappearance of parasites in three of these five patients were true recrudescences rather than a re-infection, based on genetic evidence. The present results and those of earlier investigations indicate that the response to quinine in this area may be faltering. (c) 2005 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.