Abstract. The effects of pyronaridine and chloroquine on mature Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes were compared in 161 patients treated with chloroquine or pyronaridine. Neither pyronaridine nor chloroquine showed gametocytocidal activity. The relative risks of post-treatment gametocytemia after pyronaridine and chloroquine treatment in the presence of chloroquine-resistant isolates were 1.25 and 11.5, respectively, suggesting that the use of chloroquine was associated with a high risk of favoring post-therapeutic gametocytemia in chloroquine-resistant infections.The intense and continuous transmission of Plasmodium falciparum is one of the important factors that maintain the high prevalence of malaria in most of tropical Africa. The available measures to reduce malaria transmission include vector control and the use of gametocytocidal drugs. Vector control in Africa has not had much impact on malaria control, except in pilot programs. 1 The currently available firstor second-line (chloroquine, amodiaquine, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine) and third-line (quinine) drugs in Africa do not exhibit any direct gametocytocidal action on P. falciparum. 2 Pyronaridine is a new synthetic drug that is undergoing preclinical and clinical evaluation and may replace chloroquine in Africa. 3,4 We studied and compared the effects of pyronaridine and chloroquine on gametocytes in patients with acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria.The study was part of the clinical trials involving 184 symptomatic, malaria-infected African patients (96 adults and 88 children between 5 and 15 years of age) in Yaoundé, Cameroon.4,5 Patients were treated with either 25 mg/kg of chloroquine phosphate (n ϭ 93; 10 mg/kg on days 0 and 1 and 5 mg/kg on day 2) or 32 mg/kg of pyronaridine tetraphosphate (n ϭ 91; 16 mg/kg on day 0 in two divided doses and 8 mg/kg on days 1 and 2) after informed consent was obtained from the patients or their guardians. The study was approved by the Cameroonian National Ethics Committee. Giemsa-stained thick blood smear was examined for the detection and quantification of gametocytes. The clinical conditions and asexual parasitemia were monitored on days 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 14 on an out-patient basis. Because of the slower developmental rate of gametocytes (8-10 days), compared with the 48-hr cycle of P. falciparum asexual erythrocytic forms, 6 gametocyte count was monitored on days 0, 3, 7, and 14. Gametocytes were counted against 3,000 white blood cells, and gametocyte density was determined from the white blood cell count and expressed as the number of gametocytes/l of blood.Thick blood smears were considered negative if no gametocyte was seen after counting 3,000 white blood cells. The patients were assigned to one of the following groups for the analysis of parasitologic responses of gametocytes: 1) absence of gametocytes during the 14-day follow-up period, including day 0, 2) pretreatment presence of gametocytes (which allows the evaluation of a possible gametocytocidal effect of antimalarial drugs), and 3) post-treatme...