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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
PHNOM PENH — Malaria could be developing resistance to the most effective type of drug, potentially threatening the lives of millions.
Tests have picked up disturbing signs that treatments based on artemisinin are becoming less effective at combating the disease, which affects 250 million people in the world a year, causing a million deaths.
Artemisinin treatments are currently the most effective way of fighting multi-drug resistant strains of malaria available, usually clearing the disease from the blood within three days.
But studies of patients in western Cambodia have shown that they are taking longer to do so than before, an early warning sign that the parasite is developing resistance.
The availability in Cambodia of fake malaria treatments, often containing small amounts of the real drug, is thought to be helping nurture resistance.
Professor Nick Day, of the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, who has been involved in the research, warned that the consequences could be devastating.
"If the same thing happens again, the spread of a resistant parasite from Asia to Africa, that will have devastating consequences for malaria control." he told the BBC.
From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.
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