A strain of malaria that has increasingly become more resistant to medications used to treat the disease is spreading along a part of the border between Thailand and Myanmar. If something is not done quickly, experts say the strain could reach Africa and India soon.
The findings of a recent study in the area said that patients took much longer to recover when they were treated with therapies that included artemisinin, a drug taken from the sweet wormwood shrub. The drug is considered the best medication against malaria. Nicolas White a Professor at the Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Mahidol said, “The strains of malaria that are artemisinin resistant are located along the eastern border of Myanmar and the western border of Thailand.
The reason that drug resistant malaria has spread is due to the incorrect application of artemisinin. In addition, there have been substandard and fake versions appear in the black market. The lack of government help in eradicating fake and substandard medication has made the problem even worse.
Researchers are still uncertain whether the new strain along the border of Thailand and Myanmar is a new one or the same one that emerged eight years ago in Cambodia. They plan to analyze the genes to see if the two are related. The team of researchers studied over 3,200 patients from 2001 to 2010 who had been infected with one of the severest cases of malaria. They found the standard treatment for malaria that contained artemisinin took substantially longer to eliminate the parasites in the patient’s bodies.
No patients dies, but the drug did not work as well as it had on prior occasions.
