ORAL PRESENTATION

Open Access

Chemotherapeutics for *vivax* malaria

J Kevin Baird

*From* Challenges in malaria research
Basel, Switzerland. 10-12 October 2012

*Plasmodium vivax* imposes significant burdens of mor-
bidity and mortality across the malaria endemic world.
Treatment of this infection requires a blood schizonto-
cide against the acute attack and hypnozoitocide against
relapses. Chloroquine combined with primaquine has
been the therapy of choice for radical cure of *vivax*
malaria since the 1950s. Primaquine, however, was
never optimized or adapted for use in endemic zones
and its toxicity in prevalent G6PD-defkient patients
(typically 5-20%) sharply limits its effectiveness. Resis-
tance to chloroquine has emerged in Southeast Asia and
now threatens the Indian sub-continent where most
*P. vivax* occurs. The research community faces the steep
challenge of developing new radical cure strategies. This
presentation explores those challenges and the means to
meet them, principally optimizing primaquine as a partner
to new ACTs for maximum efficacy and more practical
dosing and safety.

Published: 15 October 2012

doi:10.1186/1475-2875-11-S1-O21

Cite this article as: Baird: Chemotherapeutics for vivax malaria. Malaria Journal 2012 11(Suppl 1):O21.

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