Chloroquine Essay

If the proper drugs are used, people who have malaria can be cured and the parasites can be cleared from their body. According to an article on Drugs.com, the drugs that are available for treating people with malaria are: chloroquine, quinine, hydroxychloroquine, artemether and lumefantrine (coartem), atovaquane and proguanil (malarone), mefloquine, clindamycin (cleocin) and doxycycline. The four most common anti-malarial medications prescribed in the United States for foreign travel are: chloroquine, mefloquine, doxycycline, and malarone. Chloroquine is taken once a week, from two weeks before you departure, until four weeks after you return. According to Michael Foley, who is a professor at La Trube University in Australia, chloroquine is a dibasic drug which diffuses down the pH gradient to accumulate about a 1000-fold in the acidic vacuole of the parasite. The high intravacuole concentration of chloroquine inhibits the polymerization of haem. As a result, the haem, which is released during hemoglobin breakdown, builds up to poisonous levels, therefor killing the parasite with its own toxic waste. Side effects of chloroquine include: blurred vision, abdominal pain, nausea which can lead to vomiting, headaches, and diarrhea. Like chloroquine, mefloquine is also taken once a week, from one to two weeks before you departure, until
If it is left untreated, malaria can be fatal especially with people with severe malaria. Though there is no vaccine for malaria, researchers are working on creating one for the disease. As Dr. Charlie Easmon, a specialist advisor in travel medicine stated in an article called “Prevention of Malaria”, prevention requires awareness of risk, bite avoidance by mosquito, taking preventive medicines of you travel to or are living in malaria region, and make sure diagnosis is made promptly with early treatment of an infected