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.
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