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Rapidly spreading multidrug-resistant parasites render frontline malaria drug ineffective in southeast Asia

A rapidly evolving multi-drug resistant lineage of P. falciparum malaria parasites continues to spread in South East Asia, leading to alarmingly high treatment failure rates in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam for DHA-piperaquine, one of the world’s most important anti-malaria drugs.

© CDC James Gathany

DHA-piperaquine should no longer be used to treat falciparum malaria in Cambodia, Vietnam and northeast Thailand as it is ineffective and thereby contributes to increased malaria transmission, according to University of Oxford researchers in a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The researchers called for urgent action to eliminate falciparum malaria from the Greater Mekong Subregion to prevent local increase of these multiple resistant strains and their further spread to other parts of Asia and Africa and avoid a potential global health emergency.

Read more (Centre for Tropical Medicine & Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine website)

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