Resistant malaria spreading in South East Asia
Published: 23 July 2019, 3:23:35
However, experts said the implications may not be as severe as first thought.
What is happening?
Malaria is treated with a combination of two drugs – artemisinin and piperaquine.
The drug combo was introduced in Cambodia in 2008.
But by 2013, the first cases of the parasite mutating and developing resistance to both drugs were detected, in western parts of the country.The latest study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, analysed blood samples from patients across South East Asia.
Inspecting the parasite’s DNA showed resistance had spread across Cambodia and was also in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
It had also picked up further mutations, making it even more problematic.
In some regions, 80% of malaria parasites were drug resistant.