Comparing the Efficacy of Oral Chloroquine versus Oral Tetracycline in the Treatment of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Objective: To compare the efficacy of oral chloroquine versus oral tetracycline in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Study Design: Interventional comparative study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Dermatology, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan, from July 2017 to January 2018. Methodology: Cases of CL with age 12 years or above were included. The diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis was made on the basis of history of travel to rural endemic area and clinical features of non-healing ulcer and on detection of Amastigotes on Giemsa staining on smear taken from the involved site. A total of 50 patients were selected randomly. They were divided into two groups. Group A was treated with chloroquine in a dose of 250 mg twice daily per oral (10 mg/kg/day) and Group B was treated with doxycycline in a dose of 200 mg daily per oral (3.3 mg/kg/day). They were followed up for three months. Efficacy was labelled as 'yes' where there was complete re-epithelisation or healing with or without scarring of the lesions with no induration. Results: There were a total of 50 cases, 25 were in each group. The mean age in group A and B was 30.56 +/- 7.14 and 27.96 +/- 6.97, respectively with p=0.199. All the cases belonged to rural population and were from endemic areas. There was no difference in terms of site of lesion. Upper limbs were the most common in both groups with p=0.34. The efficacy in group A was 100% while in group B it was 23 (92%) of cases with p=0.14. Conclusion: Oral tetracycline is as efficacious as oral chloroquin in the treatment of cutaneous leishmaniasis.