side effects
Last reviewed 06/2023
Little is known about how side effects are affected by age and at what concentration the risks of quinine become substantial.
Side effects include:
- headache
- nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea:
- quinine is a strong irritant which affects the GI tract and also stimulates the vomiting centre
- auditory nerve dysfunction causing:
- deafness (non - reversible)
- tinnitus
- vertigo
- visual loss may be:
- permanent although partial or complete resolution usually occurs
- sudden onset
- limited visual disturbance to complete blindness
- thrombocytopenia
- agranulocytosis
- asthma
- skin rashes
- haemolysis in:
- pregnancy
- patients with chronic falciparum malaria
- fever
- hypotension
- convulsions
- respiratory depression
- ventricular tachycardia occurs rarely