See also Tefanoquine. An anti-relapse drug used to prevent relapses in malaria due to Plasmodium vivax or P. ovale. When used with a chemotherapeutic drug such as chloroquine for these malaria species, it thus can achieve a radical cure.
The latent liver forms in Plasmodium vivax and P.ovale which give rise to clinical relapses of malaria byinvasion of the circulating erythrocytes.The hypnozoites are not eliminated by the usual chemotherapeutic drugs used in the treatment of malaria (chloroquine, quinine etc) and to achieve a radical cure in these relapsing malarias an antirelapse drug must be added to the treatment regime (e.g. primaquine or etaquine/Tefanoquine).... hypnozoite