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