Malaria Parasite Resistant to Artemisinin Identified in Africa
Scientists have identified a drug-resistant strain of the parasite that causes malaria in Rwanda, a country in East Africa.
In the new study by the scientists from the Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Malaria Control Program in Rwanda (Rwanda Biomedical Center), Columbia University (New York, USA), and Cochin Hospital, the blood samples from patients in Rwanda were analyzed.
It was found that the parasites were able to resist treatment by a frontline drug in the fight against the disease, the artemisinin drug. At one of the health centers they monitored, in around 19 of 257 (7.4%) of patients, they found one particular mutation of the parasite, resistant to artemisinin.
They published their study in the journal Nature. In Africa, this is the first time the resistance to the drug artemisinin has been observed. The scientists warned in the journal article that, in the 1980s, millions of additional malaria deaths in young African children are suspected to be caused by the malaria parasites that developed a resistance to previous drugs, and that the resistance identified now could pose a major public health threat in the continent
. Earlier, researchers thought that the disease would be eradicated within years when the first malaria drug, chloroquine, was developed. However, malaria parasites have progressed to develop resistance to successive drugs, since the 1950s.According to the analysis by health and science correspondent, James Gallagher, this is a highly significant moment and also deeply worrying in the fight against malaria. For more than a decade, resistance to artemisinin has been there in parts of South East Asia. Now, malaria parasites that are capable of resisting treatment have infected around 80% of patients in some regions. But, Africa is where more than 9 in 10 cases of the disease are, and it has always been the biggest concern. It appears as though the resistance, rather than spreading from South East Asia to the continent, it evolved in malaria parasites in Africa. However, the result remains the same that treating malaria is getting harder.
A combination of two drugs – artemisinin and piperaquine, is now commonly used to treat malaria infection. However, in South East Asia in 2008, the malaria parasites developing resistance to artemisinin was first recorded. Scientists at that time feared that even in Africa, resistance to artemisinin could occur and have devastating consequences. These fears may have come true now as indicated in this study, as African countries have been one of the worst affected by malaria.
Source
Malaria Parasite Resistant to Artemisinin identified in Rwanda by scientists in a new study.
