Ninja Mosquitoes? Research suggests malaria might become untreatable

Photo credit: Healthy mothers

by Rachel Ogbu

Researchers have claimed that the rise of resistance to the front-line treatments for malaria means the effort to eliminate malaria is “seriously compromised”.

According to the BBC health news, latest reports from scientists suggest that confirmed resistant strains of the malaria parasite on the border between Thailand and Burma, 500 miles (800km) away from previous sites.

The details have been published in The Lancet medical journal.

The BBC reports details:

Prof Francois Nosten, who is part of the research team that has carried out the latest work, says the development is very serious.“It would certainly compromise the idea of eliminating malaria that’s for sure and will probably translate into a resurgence of malaria in many places,” he said.

For many years now the most effective drugs against malaria have been derived from the Chinese plant, Artemisia annua. In 2009 researchers found that the most deadly species of malaria parasites, spread by mosquitoes, were becoming more resistant to these drugs in parts of western Cambodia.

This new data confirms that these Plasmodium falciparum parasites that are infecting patients more than 500 miles away on the border between Thailand and Burma are growing steadily more resistant.

The researchers from the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit measured the time it took the artemisinin drugs to clear parasites from the bloodstreams of more than 3,000 patients. Over the nine years between 2001 and 2010, they found that drugs became less effective and the number of patients showing resistance rose to 20%.

In 2011, World Malaria Report released alarming figures that claimed Malaria was responsible for killing an estimated 655,000 people in 2010—more than one every minute. A majority of these were young children and pregnant women.

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