The World Health Organisation last week warned that the parasite which causes malaria is increasingly resistant to artemisinin, the best drug around, and failure to contain this trend would bring serious consequences.
“This (Asia Pacific) region has traditionally been the focus of resistance to antimalarial drugs and now we have artemisinin resistance primarily on the Thai-Cambodian border,” said John Ehrenberg, WHO regional adviser on malaria and other vectorborne and parasitic diseases.
Artemisinin, derived from the sweet wormwood shrub, is the best drug available but misuse and over-prescription have led to the parasite becoming resistant to it.
The best way to prolong the use of the drug would be to use it in combination with other antimalarial drugs. Nearly all the Asia Pacific region countries that suffer most from the disease pledged on Wednesday to do that.
The 10 countries are Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Korea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Vietnam. In 2008, these 10 states reported 248,141 confirmed cases of malaria and 1,005 deaths.
Under the agreement, the use of artemisinin alone for treating malaria must be banned by 2015. All 10 states will also help fight counterfeit antimalarial drugs, again a major cause of deaths.
In recent years, parts of Asia have been awash with fake antimalarial drugs. They contain little or no active ingredient that would fight the disease and many people have died because of that. Some of the fakes have been traced back to illegal factories in China, according to experts.
Although malaria is preventable and treatable, there were still between 189 million to 327 million cases in 2006, resulting in between 610,000 to 1.2 million deaths.
“If it is not contained, it can have global implications and the most serious one would be in Africa which has a high disease burden and the highest mortality rates,” said Ehrenbergh on the sidelines of a regional meeting of the WHO in Hong Kong.
Half the world’s population is at risk, particularly the poor and those living in remote areas with limited healthcare access. A child dies from malaria every 30 seconds.
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Global cooperation crucial to achieving MDGs, nations tell UN
Meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight ambitious anti-poverty targets agreed on by world leaders, by their 2015 deadline will require concert global cooperation, nations have told the General Assembly’s high-level annual debate.
Norway pointed out that the financial crisis has pushed millions into poverty. “Loss of income is placing public policies at perilous risk, potentially undermining services on which the poorest and weakest depend the most, such as health and education,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
The international community, said Denmark’s ambassador to the United Nations, must assist the world’s poorest in mitigating the effects of the global recession as well as to achieve development aims.
The lack of progress in improving maternal health is “the most disgraceful underachievement” to date, said Mr. Støre. “Strengthening health services is key for reducing mother and child mortality, and is also a vital element in realizing the rights of women and children.”
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