Southeast Asia is afraid of drug-resistant malaria

Scientists from the Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Thailand have warned about the spread of super-parasites resistant to antimalarial drugs in Southeast Asian countries.

Super parasite resistant to malaria drug originating from Cambodia.(Photo: REUTERS).

BBC on September 23 reported that experts discovered that the super-resistant malaria parasite originated from Cambodia and has since spread throughout Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

In the article published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, the MORU research group said that malaria parasites in Southeast Asia could neutralize the best malaria remedy today with artemisinin and piperaquine.

The number of cases of malaria treatment failure is also increasing in countries in the Mekong sub-region. Experts urged governments to quickly come up with effective prevention measures.