Dear Aalia, Hi
Welcome to HCM.
I appreciate your concern for the safety and effective drugs for malaria during pregnancy.
Chloroquine is the safest drug to be used to treat P. vivax
infection during pregnancy.
However in case of Chloroquine resistance, Quinine and
Clindamycin combination is the most effective treatment option another option is use of
Mefloquine.
The parasites (hypnozoites) of P Vivax remain dormant in the liver as they are not killed by any of the above medications and thus responsible for relapse of the malaria, so Primaquine is used to eradicate those hypnozoites.
Since Primaquine is contraindicated during pregnancy. Chloroquine is given once weekly for the duration of pregnancy for prevention of relapse of malaria.
After delivery, the patient should be treated with Primaquine once daily for 14 days. Before starting the treatment with Primaquine G6PD status should be confirmed as Primaquine is known to cause severe hemolysis in patients with
G6PD deficiency.
In addition to the above medications,
Paracetamol can be used to treat fever and iron and
folic acid supplementation as a part of routine antenatal care should be continued.
Hope the treatment options given above could be useful in the treatment of P
vivax malaria during and after the pregnancy.
Rate this answer, if you are convinced.