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Primaquine
Identifier
001551
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Primaquine
Primaquine phosphate is used in the treatment of both malaria and Pneumocystis pneumonia. It is a member of the 8-aminoquinoline group of drugs that includes tafenoquine and pamaquine.
Primaquine is used mainly to treat P. vivax or P. ovale malaria. Once the parasite has been eliminated from the bloodstream, the remaining hypnozoites are removed from the liver by administering a 14 day course of primaquine, quinine and chloroquine. The objective is to try to prevent a relapse of the disease.
Side effects of primaquine administration include nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, headache, visual disturbances and intense itching. Primaquine has also been shown to cause hemolytic anemia in people of African or Mediterranean descent.
Primaquine also causes methemoglobinemia in all patients who take it. Methemoglobin is an oxidized form of hemoglobin that has a decreased affinity for oxygen, high levels of this in the blood result in an overall reduced ability to release oxygen to tissues. In effect there can be oxygen starvation to the brain as well as other organs.
On Jan, 19, 2017 224 people reported to have side effects when taking Primaquine. Among them, 22 people (9.82%) have Hallucination, Visual