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The major benefit of mass primaquine administration in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was a considerable reduction in malaria case load in the situation where there is acute inadequacy of various means for malaria control, as well as in the containment of a large-scale malaria epidemic caused exclusively by P. vivax in a relatively short period of time. Success of mass treatment can be achieved only through high coverage (about 90% of the target population), the elaboration of clear instructions for all categories of the personnel engaged in the treatment, with the provision of regular efficient supervision, the accessibility of first medical aid at the site in case of probable severe side effects. Adherence to these prerequisites results in the safety of the treated population with very high degree of G6PD deficiency.

In 2005, Tajikistan joined the Move of Elimination of Tropical Malaria in 2010 and Tertian Malaria to 2015 (Tashkent Declaration, WHO European Office for European). To achieve the targets and goals, it is necessary to evaluate the efficiency of therapeutic and preventive measures in 2000-2007, i.e. in the postepidemic period preceding elimination (pre-elimination according to the WHO terminology). Investigations were conducted in the Gorno-Badakhstan Autonomous Region, Khatlon and Sogdiysk Regions, in the districts under the Republic's jurisdiction, and in the city of Dushanbe. The results of the investigations has shown that a small proportion of the population has red blood cell glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, which does not preclude mass preventive treatment with primaquine that is responsible for a 2.5-fold reduction in the number of foci (783 foci of different types). Foci should be typified for the rational use of a package of therapeutic and preventive measures in the endemic areas. Differentiated packages of therapeutic and preventive measures correspondingly to the National Malaria Strategy of the Republic of Tajikistan should be implemented depending on the type of a focus.

Malaria-controlling measures and the population's chemoprevention in the intensive foci caused a drastic morbidity reduction in the republic, by showing a 1.5-fold decrease in the number of malaria cases in 2005 as compared with the previous year (2309 versus 3577). Malaria patients are notified in the republic throughout the year, but infection transmission occurs in June to October. Eleven species ofAnopheles mosquitoes have been currently known in Tadjikistan; only three of them (An. superpictus, An. pulcherrimus, and An. maculipennis) are effective vectors. Malaria mostly affects the Khatlon Region (a total of 2039 cases, including 76 cases of tropic malaria) that is a valley-desert landscape in the south of Tadjikistan. In the 2006 spring, mass preventive treatment with primaquine was performed in 10 districts of the Khatlon Region, covering 98694 persons. In August 2006, the houses were treated with the insecticides Alfacipermetrine and Triton in 34 towns and districts of the republic; 25145 permetrine-impregnated bed curtains were distributed in 7 districts to protect the population from mosquito bites. In 8 districts, topminnows (Gambusia) were let into the Anopheles mosquito-rich water reservoirs and rice-growing fields with a total area of 680 ha.