Forty one (69.5%) patients were treated with quinine dihydrochloride, with a 20 mg/Kg loading dose followed by 10 mg/Kg tid, in a four-hour infusion associated with endovenous clindamycine. The other 18 patients (30.5%) were treated with oral quinine sulphate associated with doxycycline or pyrimethamine plus sulphadiazine in the first period of the study. Blood smears became negative for Plasmodium from the second to eighth day of treatment, except in a patient whose parasitaemia was 90% and who died with positive smears in the second day after admission.