[Surveillance of the sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum to chloroquine in Western Africa: value of in vivo tests using 5 and 10 mg/kg].

Studies on the in vivo sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum strains to chloroquine were carried out on shrub savanna areas of Burkina Faso, West Africa and were conducted from 1982 to 1986 in asymptomatic malarial school children. From the result of 431 in vivo tests using a single dose of only 5 or 10 mg/kg b. w. chloroquine base, it was concluded that there was a high sensitive response of P. falciparum to chloroquine. In areas where clinical resistance has not been established, and where there is a high sensibility in the response of P. falciparum to chloroquine, in vivo studies with a single dose of 5 or 10 mg/kg are probably able to detect a decrease of sensitivity before the appearance of clinical resistance to higher regimens.