Abstract

AbstractChloroquine is a drug whose roxicity is not recognized by either the general public or the medical profession. Twenty-seven cases of fatal chloroquine poisoning are presented in this paper. Of these, 13 were suicidal, 9 were accidental, and I was a case of homicide. Six of the deaths involved children from 11 months to 4 years of age. The interval between ingestion and death was usually a few hours. Toxicologic examination of the tissues revealed chloroquine in all 26 cases analyzed. High levels of chloroquine in the brain were associated with either prolonged survival after ingestion or chronic poisoning. In a number of the cases, toxic levels of choloroquine while present in tissue from one organ were not present in another organ from the same body. Therefore, it is necessary in deaths in which chloroquine poisoning is suspected, to submit more than one type of tissue for analysis. Blood, liver tissue, and brain tissue are suggested as the minimal samples to be analyzed.