LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - The fight against malaria could be undermined by
the emergence on the Thai-Cambodian border of strains that are resistant to the
most potent type of drug, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.
Artemisinin, a compound extracted from a Chinese herb, is regarded by
medical experts as the best drug against malaria and is recommended for use in
combination with other medicines to stop the development of resistance.
But the WHO said there was growing evidence that parasites resistant to
artemisinin had emerged along the border between Cambodia and Thailand, where
workers walk for miles every day to clear forests.
The risk is similar to the development of so-called "superbugs" that are
resistant to antibiotics.
"If we do not put a stop to the drug-resistant malaria situation that has
been documented in the Thai-Cambodia border, it could spread rapidly to
neighbouring countries and threaten our efforts to control this deadly disease,"
Hiroki Nakatani, WHO assistant director-general, said in a statement.
The WHO plans to try and contain the spread of resistance with the help
of a $22.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The prevalence of malaria has been reduced considerably over the past 50
years, but the disease still kills more than a million people every year.
Resistance along the Thai-Cambodia border started with chloroquine,
followed by resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and mefloquine, drugs used
in malaria control several years ago.
The risk of resistance to any drug increases when it is used on its own,
which is why the WHO recommends the routine use of artemisinin combination
therapies, such as Novartis AG's Coartem.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler, editing by Will Waterman) Keywords: MALARIA/WHO
(ben.hirschler@thomsonreuters.com; Tel: +44 20 7542 5082; Reuters Messaging:
ben.hirschler.reuters.com@reuters.net; blogs.reuters.com/ben-hirschler/)
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