Getting rid of malaria possible, if we try something new

The rapid elimination of potentially untreatable P. falciparum malaria in South-East Asia is possible, according to a ground-breaking new study published in The Lancet . The study authors say that setting up community-based malaria clinics for early diagnosis, treatment and monitoring, combined with mass antimalarial drug administration (MDA) to everyone living in 'hotspot' areas - even if they do not show signs of malaria - substantially reduced, often to zero, malaria incidence in remote Myanmar villages. Combining targeted malaria elimination activities such as these with existing control programmes, study authors say, means that there is a real chance to eliminate drug-resistant P. falciparum malaria, preventing its spread to South Asia and Africa - if authorities and funders act urgently. 'There has been no clear containment strategy so, despite substantial international investment in regional malaria control, drug-resistant malaria now extends across the whole of the Greater Mekong sub-region (GMS). However this study provides hard evidence that it is possible to eliminate artemisinin-resistant falciparum malaria rapidly if the will and the financial support are forthcoming,' said Oxford University's Professor François Nosten, Director of the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) in Mae Sot, Thailand. 'We are losing a dangerous race to eliminate falciparum malaria before drug resistance spreads beyond South-East Asia and into Africa - and this study shows us how to do it,' said Professor Nosten.