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Chloroquine and Quinine

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Critical Care Toxicology

Chloroquine

Chloroquine is used to prevent and treat malaria in limited geographical areas (e.g., Central America and the Far East) and to manage immunological disorders such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. It represents the most severe and frequent cause of poisoning by any antimalarial drug. Chloroquine is a frequent method of suicide in Africa [1], France [2, 3], Asia, and the Pacific [3, 4]. In Zimbabwe, a marked association with pregnancy was reported as a result of the mistaken belief that it is an abortifacient [1]. The development of the Internet over the last 20 years or so has led to increased information about drugs and their toxic effects and has dramatically increased the availability of drugs illicitly. Evidence also demonstrates that suicidal people search the Internet to choose their drug(s) for suicide [5].

Among 167 chloroquine poisoning cases admitted to a toxicology critical care unit, the mortality was less than 10 %; these are the best...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Executive Dean, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Alison L. Jones

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  1. Alison L. Jones
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Correspondence to Alison L. Jones .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Jeffrey Brent

  2. Office of New Drugs Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

    Keith Burkhart

  3. Clinical Toxicology, St Thomas' Hospital, London, United Kingdom

    Paul Dargan

  4. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Benjamin Hatten

  5. Med & Toxicological Intensive Care Unit, Lariboisière Hospital Paris-Diderot University, Paris, France

    Bruno Megarbane

  6. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Robert Palmer

Grading System for Levels of Evidence Supporting Recommendations in Critical Care Toxicology, 2nd Edition

  1. I

    Evidence obtained from at least one properly randomized controlled trial.

  2. II-1

    Evidence obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomization.

  3. II-2

    Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case–control analytic studies, preferably from more than one center or research group.

  4. II-3

    Evidence obtained from multiple time series with or without the intervention. Dramatic results in uncontrolled experiments (such as the results of the introduction of penicillin treatment in the 1940s) could also be regarded as this type of evidence.

  5. III

    Opinions of respected authorities, based on clinical experience, descriptive studies and case reports, or reports of expert committees.

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Jones, A.L. (2015). Chloroquine and Quinine. In: Brent, J., Burkhart, K., Dargan, P., Hatten, B., Megarbane, B., Palmer, R. (eds) Critical Care Toxicology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20790-2_99-1

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