First reported along the Thailand-Cambodia border in 2008, resistance to artemisinin – the best known drug for the treatment of malaria – has continued to spread in Asia's greater Mekong subregion. It has been identified in four countries to-date: Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Resistance can be identified when there is a significant delay in the time it takes to clear malaria parasites from patients, indicating the declining efficacy of the drug. It is believed to pose a serious challenge to efforts to eliminate malaria in the region. If the drug resistant parasite was to spread to Africa, it is further feared that the number of deaths and cases of malaria on the continent could significantly increase.
At the joint international tropical medicine meeting, held in Bangkok in December 2013, Malaria Consortium hosted a symposium on resistance and elimination in the region. 'Taking the resistance out of elimination', highlighted current efforts to combat drug resistance in Asia as well as the major barriers faced in combatting resistance in the region, including reaching migrant populations and improving surveillance and information systems.
Watch the videos to find out more.
Malaria elimination – hype or hope
Dr John R. MacArthur, chief of the programme implementation unit, Malaria Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Responding to artemisinin resistance and the pathway to elimination for Asia
Dr Sylvia Meek, Malaria Consortium technical director
Surveillance in Cambodia
Dr Arantxa Roca-Feltrer, epidemiologist and country technical coordinator, Malaria Consortium
Positive deviance: an innovative approach to improve malaria outcomes in Myanmar
Muhammad Shafique, behaviour change communication specialist, Malaria Consortium
Current status and preparations of the greater Mekong sub-region countries towards the containment of drug resistance and elimination
Dr Apinya Niramitsantipong, medical officer, bureau of vector-borne diseases, ministry of public health, Thailand
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