Tratamiento colectivo con pirimetamina y primaquina para erradicar la malaria en Sambú, Panamá

Abstract

Pyrimethamine and primaquine were distributed house-to-house, every two weeks, for a two-year period. The last insecticide spraying of the study area took place 10 months before drug distribution began. No vector control measures were operative during the period of drug distribution. As a result, the malaria prevalence which was 17.4 per cent at the beginning of the trial, dropped to 2.4 per cent in eight weeks and to about 1 per cent in another eight weeks and persisted at the latter level for the remainder of the 49 bi-weekly cycle trial. Clinical malaria disappeared

Although P. vivax malaria disappeared from the study area for 32 weeks in the second year of trial, transmission of P. falciparum malaria was greatly reduced but never completely eliminated

Parasite importation by visitors and new settlers was a constant problem. About 2.1 per cent of all new persons encountered in the area had malaria when first seen

No side effects of suficient severity to prevent taking the drug combination in subsequent cycles occurred, except for complaints of headache and nausea which were ascribed to the drug

Malaria prevalence in the study area decreased about 94 per cent while other areas in the Republic of Panama and the Canal Zone experienced an increased prevalence during the first year of the study(AU)