TY - JOUR AU - Charles, Macarthur AU - Das, Sanchita AU - Daniels, Rachel AU - Kirkman, Laura AU - Delva, Glavdia AU - Destine, Rodney AU - Escalante, Ananias AU - Villegas, Leopoldo AU - Daniels, Noah AU - Shigyo, Kristi AU - Volkman, Sarah AU - Pape, Jean AU - Golightly, Linnie T1 - Plasmodium falciparum K76T pfcrt Gene Mutations and Parasite Population Structure, Haiti, 2006–2009 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2016 VL - 22 IS - 5 SP - 786 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Hispaniola is the only Caribbean island to which Plasmodium falciparum malaria remains endemic. Resistance to the antimalarial drug chloroquine has rarely been reported in Haiti, which is located on Hispaniola, but the K76T pfcrt (P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter) gene mutation that confers chloroquine resistance has been detected intermittently. We analyzed 901 patient samples collected during 2006–2009 and found 2 samples showed possible mixed parasite infections of genetically chloroquine-resistant and -sensitive parasites. Direct sequencing of the pfcrt resistance locus and single-nucleotide polymorphism barcoding did not definitively identify a resistant population, suggesting that sustained propagation of chloroquine-resistant parasites was not occurring in Haiti during the study period. Comparison of parasites from Haiti with those from Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela reveals a geographically distinct population with highly related parasites. Our findings indicate low genetic diversity in the parasite population and low levels of chloroquine resistance in Haiti, raising the possibility that reported cases may be of exogenous origin. KW - Plasmodium falciparum KW - K76T pfcrt KW - chloroquine KW - resistance KW - sensitive KW - CQR KW - CQS KW - Haiti KW - malaria KW - parasites KW - vector-borne infections KW - vectorborne KW - gene mutation KW - haplotype KW - Hispaniola KW - Jeremie KW - Les Cayes DO - 10.3201/eid2205.150359 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/22/5/15-0359_article ER - End of Reference