HONG KONG (Reuters) – A strain of malaria increasingly
resistant to most of the effective drugs used
to treat expanded on the border between Thailand and
Myanmar, according to a 10-year study revealed
published in the medical journal The Lancet.
This way difficult to treat malaria could arrive to
India and Africa unless they find a way of
contain, a team of researchers added.
The results of the study, published Friday, indicate
that patients in clinics to treat malaria took them
more time improving when they were given combinations
treatment with artemisinin, a drug known as
best drug against malaria, according to one of the authors.
“Artemisinin-resistant strains of malaria are
“
definitely found on the western border of
“
Thailand and East of Myanmar”, said Professor Nicholas
White, of the Tropical Medicine Research Unit of the
Of Mahidol University, in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Centre for
the Tropical Medicine of the University of Oxford.
“The consequence is that there they expand or arise new
“
(strains) “, White told Reuters.
“
Considered that the expansion of malaria resistant to the
medication is a product of the incorrect use of artemisinin and
fake versions and poor quality of the medicinal product. It is
needed a stronger action by Governments and the
international agencies to stop all this, said White.
“Need considerable support for Myanmar, leadership,
“
best intelligence about where it is expanding (malaria
resistant). “Is like fighting a war”,
added.
“We need serious financial backing to contain this in
“
this region, otherwise will expand to Africa, and India
“
where more people may be affected”, noted White.
The expert and his colleagues do not know if this strain of malaria
is now spreading by Myanmar is linked with
one that emerged in Cambodia eight years ago, which is why analyse
their genes to see if they are linked.
“Can get a clearer answer to that within the
“
next year, noting the full genome (…) to set
“
whether or not to have the same origin”, specified White.
The White team studied 3.202 patients from 2001 and
2010 infected with Plasmodium falciparum, a species
of malaria which can cause serious illness.
The experts found that the standard treatment to
contains artemisinin him took much more time to remove the
the patients body parasites.
“None of the patients died, but the drugs not
“”
worked as well as did it before”, said White.
“If you have severe malaria, the best treatment is the
“
artesunate (artemisinin derivative), the treatment of
choice around the world. Compared with quinine, reduces a
third the possibility of death. “We could lose that advantage,”
added the author.
Malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium that is
transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes. The
symptoms include fever, headache and vomiting. If it is not
treated, can lead to death due to lack of supply of
blood to vital organs.
Malaria killed 655,000 people in 2010, or
1.794 persons per day, mostly African children.
