There are fewer and fewer cases of malaria in Asia. The exception is the Mekong basin, where there is a strain resistant to traditional drugs. Its appearance in Africa would risk a health disaster, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday.
According to WHO, the malaria epidemic persists in 22 countries in Asia and the Pacific. In 2010, 30 million people contracted the disease in this region. More than 40 die of malaria there every year. people, mainly in India, Burma, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
While malaria cases in the region have dropped by 10 percent in the past 50 years, the concern of scientists attending a conference on the disease in Asia-Pacific is caused by malaria in the Mekong Basin.
It is caused by a plague resistant to the Chinese antimalarial drug artemisinin (qinghaosu) produced from the herb Artemisia annua.
International efforts have paid off, but the strain is still growing, said former head of the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, Richard Feachem.
The WHO called on countries with Plasmodium falciparum malaria in late September to take immediate action to contain the disease. This dangerous strain was first observed in 2004 on the border between Thailand and Cambodia. Since then, it has also appeared on the border between Thailand and Burma as well as in central and southern Vietnam.
If it goes beyond its borders and reaches Africa, it could lead to a health disaster, said Robert Newman, head of the WHO anti-malaria program.
In order to stop the spread of the disease, mosquito nets are distributed, disinfestations are carried out and access to rapid diagnostic tests is increased.
Artemisinin resistance can be controlled with other medications, but this increases treatment time and costs.
French and British researchers recently announced that they had successfully synthesized molecules that proved effective in the laboratory against falciparum and could replace the Chinese drug in a while.
In 2010, 655 people died of malaria worldwide. people, mainly in Africa, where the disease kills one child every minute – according to WHO data. (PAP)
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