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Article: Availability of parenteral quinidine gluconate for treatment of severe or complicated malaria. (delay in getting quinidine gluconate to treat two malaria patients is believed to have been a factor in their deaths)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
- Article date:
- June 14, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 U.S. Government Printing Office. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CDC has received reports of two fatal cases of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the United States in which a delay in obtaining quinidine gluconate for intravenous therapy was thought to have played a role in the patients' deaths. Since 1991, quinidine gluconate, a well-known and widely used class la anti-arrhythmic agent, has been the only parenteral antimalarial drug available in the United States. It is the drug of choice for treating serious and life-threatening malaria infections and is active against drug-resistant strains of P. falciparum. intravenous quinidine is indicated whenever oral therapy is not possible, in high-density infections (>5% of red blood cells ...