DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i06.022

Pages: 1981-1985

The objective of this paper was to compare the efficacy of chloroquine and co-artemether in uncomplicated malaria cases. It was a prospective interventional study. The subjects included children with PBF proven uncomplicated Malaria (n=49) admitted in Department of Pediatrics of a tertiary care hospital of Northern India over a period of one year. Children with uncomplicated malaria (PBF proved) were given either chloroquine (n=24) or lumefantrine+artemether combination (n=25) according to random table. Therapeutic response to antimalarial drugs was assessed by fever defervescence time, parasite clearance time, spleen regression time and adverse reactions of the drug. Out of 49 cases chloroquine was given in 24 cases and co-artemether in 25 cases. The mean duration of fever was 42.5+29.81 & 36.00+12.96 hrs, splenic regression time was 5.08+1.04 & 4.92+1.21 days, parasitic clearance time was 1.83+0.76 & 1.48+0.58 days and the cure rate observed was 95.83% & 96.00% for chloroquine and co-artemether respectively and the difference was statistically insignificant (p>0.05). We concluded that there was no significant difference observed in cure rate with chloroquine (95.83%) and co-artemether (96%), but the cost of treatment 7-8 times increases with the use of co-artemether. No side effects are seen with both the antimalarial drugs. So based on our study we concluded that chloroquine is still the drug of choice for uncomplicated malaria cases in our setup because of its cost effectiveness.