Several national malaria programmes in Asia have adopted a truncated 5-day course of PQ for vivax malaria to reduce the risk of haemolysis to reasonable levels and to increases compliance rates. Recently this has been documented as being ineffective at reducing relapse rates amongst Afghan refugees in Pakistan while a supervised 14 day course can significantly reduce the frequency of second and third episodes of disease. This is also confirmed by a study in India. Use of the 14 day course is only recommended where the G6PD status of the individual is known, and, currently, where compliance with the full course can be assured. However supervision of patients for 14 day post presentation is seldom feasible in the majority of settings where vivax malaria predominates. Therefore the supposition that patients in a low literacy population will not comply with a 14 day course of treatment in the absence of supervision needs to be confirmed under normal operational conditions. Compliance in taking the drug cannot be monitored by direct observation or by chemical assay of residues in the blood because such interference may, in itself, affect compliance.