J Korean Med Sci.  2005 Oct;20(5):707-712. 10.3346/jkms.2005.20.5.707.

Evaluation of Anti-Malarial Effects of Mass Chemoprophylaxis in the Republic of Korea Army

• Yeom JS
• Ryu SH
• Oh S
• Choi DH
• Song KJ
• Oh YH
• Lee JH
• Kim YA
• Ahn SY
• Yang HY
• Cha JE
• Park JW

• KMID: 1781749
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2005.20.5.707

Abstract

Vivax malaria was endemic on the Korean peninsula for many centuries until the late 1970's when the Republic of Korea (ROK) was declared "malaria free". Since its re-emergence in 1993, the number of malaria cases in the military increased exponentially through 2000 near the demilitarized zone. Chemoprophylaxis with chloroquine and primaquine has been used in the ROK Army since 1997 in an attempt to reduce the number of the malaria cases throughout the ROK. Data show that chemoprophylaxis contributed, in part, to the decrease in the number of malaria cases among military personnel. However, mass chemoprophylaxis on a large scale in the ROK Army is unprecedented and extensive supervision and monitoring is warranted to determine its effectiveness and to monitor the appearance of chloroquine tolerant/resistant strains of Plasmodium vivax.

Keyword

Malaria; Malaria, Vivax; Korea; Chemoprevention; Chloroquine; Primaquine

MeSH Terms

Antimalarials/therapeutic use
Chemoprevention/methods/statistics and numerical data
Chloroquine/*therapeutic use
Disease Outbreaks/*prevention and control/*statistics and numerical data
Humans
Incidence
Korea/epidemiology
Malaria, Vivax/*epidemiology/*prevention and control
Military Personnel/*statistics and numerical data
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Prevalence
Primaquine/*therapeutic use
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Risk Assessment/methods
Risk Factors
Treatment Outcome

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Ten-day incident cases of malaria involving soldiers and civilians in the Republic of Korea from January 1999 through December 2002. Arrows represent the starting point of chemoprophylaxis in each year.

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