Scary Drug-Resistant Malaria Spreading in Asia

Countries Must Do More Prevent Spread of Malaria Parasite Resistant to Powerful Prophylactic in Southeast Asia, WHO Says

(CBS) The World Health Organization says that only one-third of malaria-endemic countries dealing with falciparum malaria, the parasite’s deadliest strain, are doing enough to detect a version of it resistant to one of the best-known treatments.

Strains of malaria resistant to Artemisinin, a powerful prophylactic and treatment for the mosquito-borne parasite, are spreading in Southeast Asia, the WHO said in a press release.

The resistant strain of malaria first appeared along Myanmar-Thailand border, the WHO said. Officials fear it could spread from the Cambodia-Thailand border to Africa, as it did with other antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in the 1960s and 1970s.

CBS News