What Next as Parasites Become Resistant to Best Malaria Treatment?

Published November 15, 2009 @ 02:29PM PT

Mosquitoes are becoming resistant to artemisinin, "the only remaining effective drug in the world's arsenal against malaria's most deadly strain"? On the Thai-Cambodia border this is happening due to a rouge strain of malaria. The race is on to eliminate malaria before its too late — before more resistances are established around the world.

Artemisinin hasn't been around for long as a purified treatment for malaria, but it has been used to fight the disease in China for thousands of years, and it has been taken across Southeast Asia for 30 years, allowing parasites longer to adapt. So how can this problem be solved? The Global Fund hope that undercutting sales of alternative and counterfeit treatments with genuine effective treatments will help make access to anti-malarials. Compared to HIV and tuberculosis prevention (the top one and three most deadly diseases, with malaria between them), subsidizing malaria treatments, alongside other efforts, could eliminate the disease entirely. The longer we wait, the more time parasites have to build up resistance to our best weapons.

Photo: UN Photo/Martine Perret

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