[Drug resistance of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in Equatorial Africa. Apropos of cases observed at a military unit stationed in Gabon].

The existence of Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine-resisting clones in equatorial Africa is quite a recent event. Among a French military unit of 138 people who had lived in Gabon from April to August 1986, 24 of them have caught malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum. This allows us to perceive the impact of this event because of the perfect control of chloroquine prophylaxis and the good knowledge of all the attacks of fever which occurred in the field. Admitting 10 of those people into the department of internal medicine of the Military Hospital Desgenettes located in Lyons, we could have seen that trophozoites of Plasmodium falciparum were still persisting 2 months after their return for 8 of them in spite of carrying on chemoprophylaxis. Observing that in the field, sets the problem of the chemoprophylaxis of malaria for the troops maneuvering in chloroquine-resisting areas and warrants, if justified, a work protocol aimed at solving it.