According to a study recently published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, a lineage of multidrug resistant P. falciparum malaria superbugs has spread through parts of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, resulting in high treatment failure rates for artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs).
The emergence and spread of P. falciparum malaria resistant to ACTs, the main falciparum malaria medicines, poses a serious global threat to malaria control and eradication efforts.
“Already hundreds of thousands of people every year die from drug resistant infections, including malaria,” Mike Turner, head of Infection and Immunobiology at Wellcome Trust, said. “If nothing is done, this will increase to millions of people every year by 2050. The Oxford and Mahidol-led results show a worrying spread of malaria parasite resistance. Data to help track resistance to drugs, such as this study, are vital for improving treatment, diagnosis and prevention of drug resistant infections.”
Study lead Arjen Dondorp, head of Malaria and deputy head of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Thailand, Asia, said that the wide spread of resistant malaria should be an immediate call for more aggressive research for stronger treatments.
“We hope this evidence will be used to reemphasize the urgency of malaria elimination in the Asia-region before falciparum malaria becomes close to untreatable,” Dondorp said.
The authors note that while the multidrug resistant parasites have spread to three countries, their continued dissemination through India to sub-Saharan Africa would create a worldwide public health disaster.
“We are losing a dangerous race to eliminate artemisinin resistant falciparum malaria before widespread resistance to the partner antimalarials makes that impossible,” Nicholas White, study contributor and an Oxford and Mahidol University professor, said. “The spread and emergence of drug resistant malaria parasites across Asia into Africa has occurred before. Last time it killed millions. We need to work with our policy, research and funding partners to respond to this threat in Asia urgently to avoid history repeating itself.”