Key malaria treatment fails for the first time
According to a new study, for the first time, a key malaria treatment has failed in patients being treated in the UK, which may signal that the parasite is evolving resistance.
The drug, which is commonly used to treat malaria in the UK, failed to cure four patients who contracted the disease while visiting Africa. The patients were eventually treated using other therapies.
The researchers believe the treatment failure was due to these strains showing reduced susceptibility, a potential first sign of drug resistance.
“These cases act as a warning for Africa,” they said. “Drug resistance is one of the biggest threats we face in fighting malaria, and is already starting to occur in parasite strains prevalent in parts of South-East Asia. We need to understand why Artemether-lumefantrine (AL) failed to clear these four cases of Plasmodium falciparum infection.”
A team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK said that it is too early to panic, but warned that things could suddenly get worse, and demanded an urgent appraisal of levels of drug resistance in Africa.