Artemisinin resistance could set back malaria control efforts
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the emergence of artemisinin resistant parasites at the Thai-Cambodia border could seriously undermine global malaria control efforts.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the emergence of artemisinin resistant parasites at the Thai-Cambodia border could seriously undermine global malaria control efforts.
Surveillance and research supported by WHO to monitor antimalarial drug efficacy have provided new evidence that parasites have emerged where workers clear forests. The risk that they may be infected with a drug-resistant form of malaria could set back efforts to control the disease.
WHO said it would strive to contain artemisinin resistant malaria parasites before they spread with a US$22.5m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"If we do not put a stop to the drug-resistant malaria situation that has been documented in the Thai-Cambodia border, it could spread rapidly to neighbouring countries and threaten our efforts to control this deadly disease," said Dr Hiroki Nakatani, assistant director-general of WHO.
Resistance in this area started with chloroquine, followed by sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and mefloquine.
Malaria poses a risk to half of the world's population and more than a million people die of the disease each year. The malaria map has been reduced considerably over the past 50 years, but the disease has defied eradication in areas of intense transmission.