Drug-Resistant Malaria May Pose Major Threat

According to Newsweek, "A strain of drug-resistant malaria that was discovered last summer along the Thailand-Cambodia border has been been spreading throughout Southeast Asia, to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar." Specifically, the samples are resistant to anti-malarial artemisinin. The study analyzed more than 900 blood samples from malaria patients at over 55 different sites in Myanmar. The results showed that the drug-resistant bug was widespread, and dangerously close to the Indian border in the country’s Sagaing region. "Our study shows that artemisinin resistance extends over more of southeast Asia than had previously been known, and is now present close to the border with India,” wrote the researchers in the study abstract.

Comments

Re:the samples are resistant to anti-malarial arte

[dryeo]

An yet the raptors made a serious comeback after DDT use was cut back. Yesterday I went to the local dump and counted 30 eagles. It's important to have carrion eaters around to slow down disease spread and eagles are very good at eating carrion.

Re:the samples are resistant to anti-malarial arte

[rs79]

"In malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, for example, depletes its host of Vitamin A, possibly resulting in blindness in some cases. However, 200,000 International Units of Vitamin A, given to children every three months can reduce significantly their susceptibility to malaria. This would seem to be a minimum child dosage for the treatment of the disease."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...