Quinacrine (trade name: Atabrine) is a drug with a number of different medical applications.
As an antimalarial drug, it has been available since the 1920s, but it is currently used as an antibiotic in the treatment of Giardiasis, an intestinal parasite.
Quinacrine Sterilization
Inserting seven tiny pellets of quinacrine into the uterine cavity with a straw-like IUD inserter on two separate occasions one month apart results in permanent sterilization of a woman. The quinacrine acts as a sclerosing agent, and chemically burns surface tissue at the utero-tubal junctions, where the Fallopian tubes enter the uterus. In six weeks scar tissue forms, closing off the tubes permanently. This method has been used successfully on over 150,000 women in 46 countries, with no deaths.
