Race against time as malaria resistance grows

Brendan Trembath in ABC Sydney (Australia): There is new evidence that resistance to the main treatments for malaria is increasing. Scientists have found resistant strains of the parasite on the border between Thailand and Burma.

A few years ago researchers also found malaria resistance in parts of western Cambodia. In the study, published in The Lancet, Professor Francois Nosten and fellow scientists say increased resistance in the region has "seriously compromised" the effort to eliminate the deadly disease.

"Malaria is particularly resistant to drugs in this part of the world," he said. "The concerns are that if we lose these drugs to resistance, we have no new treatment for this disease.

"These drugs, the Artemisia derivatives have been adopted as the standout treatment for any case of malaria worldwide, because they are very effective. "But of course obviously if the parasite that causes malaria becomes resistant to them, then we will be in great trouble." Professor Nosten says there are no back-up drugs in the development pipeline....

A mosquito, shot by Alvesgaspar, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license