[The role of mefloquine in the prevention of malaria].
The use of Méfloquine in the prophylactic treatment of malaria has, up to now, been hampered by the standpoint adopted by the WHO, the Conseil Supérieur d'Hygiène and some specialists, for whom Méfloquine should be administered only for short stays in areas of strong chloroquine-resistance. This policy, which prevents many travellers and overseas residents from benefitting from one of the most effective prophylactic treatments on the market today, thereby indirectly causing a number of pernicious cases of malaria, is based on the unfounded, unproved premise that wide use of this drug would foster the development of méfloquine-resistance or on side-effects, which are in fact rarely of any consequence and always curable. The efficacity of this drug should ensure that it is used for the basic prophylactic treatment of malaria in chloroquine-resistant areas, whatever the degree of this resistance and the length of stay involved, on condition that care is taken as to the tolerance of this drug in the early stages of treatment.
Périn
M
M
Lapierre
J
J
Sureau
C
C
D000349:Africa; D002738:Chloroquine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015767:Mefloquine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D002738:Chloroquine; D015767:Mefloquine
La place de la méfloquine dans la prophylaxie du paludisme.