The return of chloroquine

Chloroquine is a drug that was widely used both to prevent and to treat the effects of malaria and, despite the development of resistant malarial strains, is still used in this form. Like other anti-malarial drugs, chloroquine and its metabolite sister drug hydroxychloroquine have a number of well-known ocular side effects, some sight-threatening. As resistance to the drugs increased and the impact of malaria in northern Europe subsided, these effects were seen less and less. However, in recent decades, the drugs have found a new lease of life in the management of a number of inflammatory diseases and so an understanding of the ocular consequences is again back on the radar.