In French Guiana, malaria is endemic and two species predominate: P. falciparum and P. vivax. The treatments against Plasmodium vivax malaria are: nivaquine for 3 days against circulating blood parasites and primaquine for 14 days against parasites dormant in the liver. Primaquine can cause iatrogenic hemolytic anemias in patients with favism, i.e. G6PD deficiency. This anemia can be severe enough to cause the death of the deficient patient. Thus, the WHO and HCSP recommendations indicate that a quantitative assay of the activity of this enzyme should be carried out before its prescription. This deficiency is a recessive inherited disease linked to the X chromosome characterized by more or less low levels of enzymatic activity which depends on the genotype of the patients but not only because the phenotype depends on the level of activation of the X chromosome for each cell. Currently, obtaining a G6PD assay in French Guiana is a long process since it is done in mainland France and the pre-analytical conditions are quite demanding. Thus, in areas of transmission of P. vivax, patients usually have a bout of revival before being prescribed primaquine. This period includes: dosing G6PD at a distance from access, obtaining the result and then the nominal ATU to finally obtain and deliver the primaquine.
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Sensitivity and specificity of the STANDARD G6PD test
Timeframe: 3 years