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The parasite became resistant to a previous drug - chloroquine - in East Africa in the 1970s, and resistance reached the west coast by the 1980s.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, fear led people to believe dangerous disinformation, including Trump’s recommendation to take the antimalarial medicine chloroquine to protect themselves against the contagion.

Others have died after ingesting other unproven COVID-19 cures such as chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine, which was promoted by Trump as president.

On March 28, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization to doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and another antimalarial drug, chloroquine, to treat Covid.

Most treatments, including chloroquine, are directed at the blood stage of the parasite, and so cannot prevent recurrence of the infection and its associated symptoms.