Tackling Emerging Antimalarial Drug Resistance in Africa
Daily Rendezvous 17 November 2022 | Geneva | News release WHO is launching today a new strategy to respond to the urgent problem of antimalarial drug resistance in Africa. The strategy is being released during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, a global annual campaign to improve awareness of the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics and other medicines. In recent years, there have been reports from Africa of emerging parasite resistance to artemisinin – the core compound of the best available medicines to treat malaria. There are also worrying signs that parasites in some areas may be resistant to drugs that are commonly combined with artemisinin. Vigorous measures are needed to protect their efficacy. “Although antimalarial drug resistance is a serious cause for concern, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) remain the best available treatment for uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria,” notes Dr Pascal Ringwald, lead author of th...