Efficacy of halofantrine in malaria.

five per cent of the total cases of malaria in our country occur in children below 15 years of age(2). Of late, more and more cases appear to be resistant to chloroquine and also to other antimalarials(3). This is particularly so with Plasmodium falciparum malaria(4). In India, chloroquine resistant strains of P. falciparum were demonstrated in 19 states of the country in 1986(5). Halofantrine, a phenanthrene-methanol, is an orally administered schizonticidal drug, effective against both chloroquine sensitive and resistant strains of Plasmodia. We report our results with 46 children suffering from malaria treated with halofantrine using a 3 dose regimen of 8 mg/kg 6 hourly(6,7).