Evaluation of anti-malarial effects of mass chemoprophylaxis in the Republic of Korea army.
Vivax malaria was endemic on the Korean peninsula for many centuries until the late 1970's when the Republic of Korea (ROK) was declared "malaria free". Since its re-emergence in 1993, the number of malaria cases in the military increased exponentially through 2000 near the demilitarized zone. Chemoprophylaxis with chloroquine and primaquine has been used in the ROK Army since 1997 in an attempt to reduce the number of the malaria cases throughout the ROK. Data show that chemoprophylaxis contributed, in part, to the decrease in the number of malaria cases among military personnel. However, mass chemoprophylaxis on a large scale in the ROK Army is unprecedented and extensive supervision and monitoring is warranted to determine its effectiveness and to monitor the appearance of chloroquine tolerant/resistant strains of Plasmodium vivax.
Yeom
Joon-Sup
JS
Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Ryu
Seung-Ho
SH
Oh
Sejoong
S
Choi
Dong-Hyun
DH
Song
Kyoung-Jun
KJ
Oh
Young-Ha
YH
Lee
Jae-Hyun
JH
Kim
Young-A
YA
Ahn
Sun-Young
SY
Yang
Hwa-Young
HY
Cha
Je-Eun
JE
Park
Jae-Won
JW
D000962:Antimalarials / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018890:Chemoprevention / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002738:Chloroquine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D015995:Prevalence; D011319:Primaquine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000962:Antimalarials; D002738:Chloroquine; D011319:Primaquine