Thursday, February 4, 2010

Southeast Asia: Anti-malaria tolerance

WHO warns of tolerance to anti-malaria drug
Increased drug resistance could undermine malaria control efforts (Swiss Radio).

RANGOON, Burma (IRIN) - Tolerance to artemisinin, the most effective anti-malarial drug available, is emerging in Myanmar and could pose a major challenge to regional malaria control, says the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO, researchers, and health officials are already trying to contain the spread of resistant strains of the Plasmodium falciparum parasite along the Thai-Cambodian border. The parasite causes the most deadly form of malaria.

Preliminary studies in 2008-09 by the Mekong countries of Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam, show tolerance elsewhere, with the drug proving less effective and taking longer than it did previously to control the parasite. The studies, presented late last year at a WHO regional workshop of health officials, show tolerance may have extended to areas along the Burma-Thailand, Burma-China, and Cambodia-Vietnam borders. More>>

No comments: