TY - JOUR T1 - Relapses of <em>Plasmodium vivax</em> malaria threaten disease elimination: time to deploy tafenoquine in India? JF - BMJ Global Health JO - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004558 VL - 6 IS - 2 SP - e004558 AU - Sundus Shafat Ahmad AU - Manju Rahi AU - Amit Sharma Y1 - 2021/02/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/6/2/e004558.abstract N2 - SummaryIndia reported 181,554 malaria cases caused by Plasmodium vivax in 2019 and WHO estimates point out that almost half of global vivax burden is in India.Current treatment of vivax malaria by 3 days of chloroquine and 14 days of low dose of primaquine suffers from poor compliance.The incomplete clearance of vivax reservoir pose a threat to India’s and regional malaria elimination plans.Tafenoquine as an alternative to primaquine may overcome some of the challenges to malaria elimination.Millions suffer from the scourge of malaria across the world, reflected by the estimated 228 million cases and 0.4 million deaths it caused in 2018, as reported in the World Malaria Report 2019. India and African nations shouldered 85% of the world’s malaria burden in 2018. The South-East Asia Region recorded a 70% decrease in malaria incidence from 2010 (17 cases/1000 population) to 2018 (5 cases/1000 population). Despite the absolute reduction in India’s malaria cases, with 2.6 million fewer cases in 2018 than in 2017, India’s malaria burden still remains considerable at an estimated 6.7 million cases.1 Out of all the global Plasmodium vivax burden, 53% is in the WHO South-East Asia Region, India accounting for 47% and is a major cause of health burden in these countries.1 P. vivax malaria is now known to cause considerable morbidity and mortality due to severe malaria.2 In addition, due to relapses P. vivax causes additional burden on disease burden and feeds transmission. Despite the problem of P. vivax, malaria control have hitherto focused more on P. falciparum. It is likely that this burden will increase in 2020–2021 due to diversion of public health attention towards COVID-19. At the same time, there is a potential for several cross-learnings between malaria and COVID-19.3 4 Nonetheless, P. vivax continues to … ER -