Alert! Malaria Parasite Resistant to Artemisinin

Malaria Parasite Resistant to Artemisinin

By Judd-Leonard Okafor, Source: Daily Trust.

A new research has identified resistance to artemisinin in new strains of Plasmodium falciparum–the parasite that causes malaria.

The research, published in the journal Nature Genetics, analysed variation in the genome of 825 samples of the parasite from Asia and Africa.

The variation identifies differences in the population structure of the parasite in western Cambodia.

The parasites that showed differences were able to withstand treatment by artemisinin, which is the frontline drug for treating malaria.

Artemisinin is also recommended by policy in Nigeria in attempts to push chloroquine off medicine shelves after resistance was reported.

The resistance is not yet reported to be widespread but only as first signs of partial failure of artemisinin.

The lead author, Dr Olivo Miotto, of the University of Oxford and Mahidol University in Thailand, said: “All the most effective drugs that we have had in the last few decades have been one by one rendered useless by the remarkable ability of this parasite to mutate and develop resistance.

“Artemisinin right now works very well. It is the best weapon we have against the disease, and we need to keep it.”

Still working

The researchers said the data provided a “framework for investigating the biological origins of artemisinin resistance” as well as finding ways to help eliminate the resistance.

Reports of drug resistance in western Cambodia first emerged in 2008 before its spread to other parts of South East Asia.

But some of the samples used in the research were from Africa.

At last 95% of malaria cases in Nigeria are caused by P. Falciparum, the same species of the parasite in the study.

It kills one person every two minutes, according to estimates, including 300 children and one in ten women every year.

The cost of treatment and care is estimated at N480 billion a year.

The World Health Organisation noted up to 219 million cases of malaria in 2010 alone, killing 660,000 people. About 90% of the global burden of malaria is in Africa.

Read more at: http://allafrica.com/stories/201304300055.html