Papua and New Guinea medical journal
-
Plasmodium vivax is a major cause of malarial infection and disease in young children in Papua New Guinea. Recent increase in funding for malaria control has improved accessibility to preventive measures, diagnosis and artemisinin combination therapies. Yet the current treatment and control measures are more effective against P. falciparum than against P. vivax and P. ovale due to the biological differences in the liver stage life-cycle of these parasites. ⋯ Furthermore, there is a paucity of primaquine safety and tolerability data, especially in young children with the highest P. vivax disease burden. For malaria control and elimination efforts to be effective, interventions such as mass drug administration must include primaquine. This opinion paper highlights the need to eradicate hypnozoites in the liver of the human host with primaquine treatment for radical cure of malarial illness and discusses the challenges in the use of primaquine as a public health tool for malaria control and elimination programs in countries such as Papua New Guinea.