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Researchers have warned that parasitic forms that are resistant to malaria-causing drugs are spreading in southeastern Asia, resulting in an "alarming" rate of treatment failure.
Both studies published in Lancet Infectious Diseases found that in parts of Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, up to 80% of the most common malaria parasites were now resistant to the two most common antimalarial drugs. .
Plasmodium falciparum parasites have also gained resistance related to treatment failure in one of the most recent and powerful combinations of first-line drugs, they said.
These disturbing results indicate that the problem of multidrug resistance P falciparum "It's significantly aggravated in Southeast Asia since 2015," said Olivo Miotto, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Oxford, who co-led the study. "This extremely potent parasite strain is capable of invading new territories and acquiring new genetic properties."
Roberto Amato, who worked with the team, said: "We have discovered [it] it was spread aggressively, replacing local malaria parasites, and had become the dominant strain in Vietnam, Laos and northeastern Thailand. "
Miotto warned of "the terrifying prospect" of the spread of the parasite in Africa, where most cases of malaria occur.
Similar resistance to chloroquine, a long-standing anti-malaria drug, caused millions of deaths in Africa in the 1980s.
Malaria kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly children in Africa.
More than 200 million people are infected with the virus. P falciparum parasite responsible for nine deaths out of 10 worldwide due to malaria.
A combination of drugs called DHA-PPQ was initially effective against the parasite, before doctors noticed signs of resistance in 2013.
The latest study on failure rates of DHA-PPQ showed that they now reach 53% in southwestern Vietnam and up to 87% in northeastern Thailand.
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