Primaquine (Systemic)

Before Using This Medicine

In deciding to use a medicine, the risks of taking the medicine must be weighed against the good it will do. This is a decision you and your doctor will make. For primaquine, the following should be considered:

Allergies - Tell your doctor if you have ever had any unusual or allergic reaction to primaquine or iodoquinol (e.g., Yodoxin). Also tell your health care professional if you are allergic to any other substances, such as foods, preservatives, or dyes.

Pregnancy - Primaquine is not recommended for use during pregnancy.

Breast-feeding - It is not known if primaquine is distributed into breast milk. However, primaquine has not been reported to cause problems in nursing babies.

Children - Children should avoid traveling to areas where there is a chance of getting malaria, unless they can take effective antimalarial medicines such as primaquine.

Older adults - Many medicines have not been studied specifically in older people. Therefore, it may not be known whether they work exactly the same way they do in younger adults or if they cause different side effects or problems in older people. There is no specific information comparing use of primaquine in the elderly with use in other age groups.

Other medicines - Although certain medicines should not be used together at all, in other cases two different medicines may be used together even if an interaction might occur. In these cases, your doctor may want to change the dose, or other precautions may be necessary. When you are taking primaquine it is especially important that your health care professional know if you are taking any of the following:

• Acetohydroxamic acid (e.g., Lithostat) or
• Antidiabetics, oral (diabetes medicine you take by mouth) or
• Dapsone or
• Furazolidone (e.g., Furoxone) or
• Methyldopa (e.g., Aldomet) or
• Nitrofurantoin (e.g., Furadantin) or
• Procainamide (e.g., Pronestyl) or
• Quinacrine (e.g., Atabrine) or
• Quinidine (e.g., Quinidex) or
• Quinine (e.g., Quinamm) or
• Sulfonamides (sulfa medicine) or
• Sulfoxone (e.g., Diasone) or
• Vitamin K (e.g., AquaMEPHYTON, Synkayvite) - Taking these medicines with primaquine may increase the chance of side effects affecting the blood

Other medical problems - The presence of other medical problems may affect the use of primaquine. Make sure you tell your doctor if you have any other medical problems, especially:

• Family or personal history of favism or hemolytic anemia or
• Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency or
• Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) methemoglobin reductase deficiency - Patients with any of these medical problems who take primaquine may have an increased chance of side effects affecting the blood