A lineage of multidrug resistant P. falciparum malaria superbugs has widely spread and is now established in parts of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a study has warned. The malaria superbug lineage is causing high treatment failure rates for the main falciparum malaria medicines, artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs), according to the study published today in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The emergence and spread of artemisinin drug resistant P falciparum lineage represents a serious threat to global malaria control and eradication efforts. The authors warned that malaria parasites resistant to both artemisinin and its widely used partner drug piperaquine are now spreading quickly throughout Cambodia, with fitter multidrug resistant parasites spreading throughout western Cambodia, southern Laos and northeastern Thailand. “We hope this evidence will be used to reemphasize the urgency of malaria elimination in the Asia-region before falciparum malaria becomes close to untreatable,” Dondorp added.

Source: Hindustan Times February 02, 2017 06:56 UTC