{"id":41253,"date":"2024-07-18T18:08:41","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T18:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/urgent-action-needed-as-malaria-evolves-resistance-to-key-drug\/"},"modified":"2024-07-18T18:08:41","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T18:08:41","slug":"urgent-action-needed-as-malaria-evolves-resistance-to-key-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=41253","title":{"rendered":"Urgent action needed as malaria evolves resistance to key drug"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A similar story has happened before. The parasite became resistant to a previous drug – chloroquine – in East Africa in the 1970s, and resistance reached the west coast by the 1980s. <\/p>\n

Malaria deaths on the continent trebled from about 493,000 in 1980 to 1.6 million by 2004.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m hoping this is not something we will see in Africa,” Dr Dhorda told me.<\/p>\n

“If artemisinin combination therapy starts failing, then cases and deaths will go up.”<\/p>\n

The authors have made a series of recommendations targeting both the parasite and the mosquitoes that spread the disease.<\/p>\n

They suggest adding a third drug to the artemisinin combination therapy to make it harder for the parasite to evolve resistance to therapy.<\/p>\n

Dr Dhorda says this will cost money but: “We might spend a little more now, but if not we’ll be spending a lot more to control the fire rather than putting it out before it became widespread.”<\/p>\n

They also call for: <\/p>\n

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