Drug-resistant malaria close to border with India

Resistance to the antimalarial drug artemisinin is established in Myanmar and has reached within 25 kilometres of the Indian border, a study involving Oxford University researchers has found. Resistance to the antimalarial drug artemisinin is established in Myanmar and has reached within 25 kilometres of the Indian border, a study involving Oxford University researchers has found. The study, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases , suggests that artemisinin resistance threatens to follow the same historical trajectory from Southeast Asia to the Indian subcontinent as seen in the past with other antimalarial medicines. The spread of malaria parasites that are resistant to the drug artemisinin - the frontline treatment against malaria infection - into neighbouring India would pose a serious threat to the global control and eradication of malaria. Millions of lives may potentially be at risk if drug resistance spreads from Asia to the African sub-continent, or emerges in Africa independently, as has happened several times before. Mapping the spread of resistance, together with a more systematic review and revision of medicine dosing strategies (especially for vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant women) will help to preserve and prolong the life-span of these life-saving medicines. The collection of samples from across Myanmar and its border regions was led by Dr Kyaw Myo Tun of the Defence Services Medical Research Centre, Napyitaw, Myanmar and coordinated by the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Bangkok, Thailand.