PROFILE OF CHLOROQUINE - INDUCED PRURITUS IN NIGERIAN CHILDREN RESIDENT IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Chloroquine is still the first-line drug in the treatment of malaria in Nigeria and West-Africa sub-region. A major drawback to the use of chloroquine is pruritus. We studied a total of 175 children aged 1-15 years with a view to assessing some factors that may influence chloroquine induced pruritus and the possible impact on therapy with this drug. The mean age was 5.2±4.0 and there were 87 females and 88 males. Chloroquine-induced pruritus was found in 43/175 (24.6%). All the subjects experienced the itching within 24 hours of ingestion of the drug and median duration of the itching was 2 days. Majority of those who itched still used chloroquine to treat malaria for various reasons. There was positive family history in 34/43 (79%) of those who itched and 57/132 (43%) of those who did not itch to chloroquine. Those who had chloroquine-induced pruritus were relatively older (mean age 6.90±3.68 years versus 4.64±4.00; p< 0.05) and mean age onset of chloroquine-induced pruritus was positively associated with mean age of the children r = 0.91; 95% confidence limits: 0.71< r < 0.91. We concluded that chloroquine-induced pruritus in this group of children evolved with increasing age and was associated with positive family history.