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A health volunteer sprays smoke during an antimalaria fumigation campaign in Phimai District, Nakhon Ratchasima. (Photo of Bangkok Post)
LONDON: Scientists warned on Monday that strains of malaria resistant to two essential antimalarial drugs are increasingly dominant in Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand after their rapid spread in Cambodia. Using genomic surveillance to track the spread of drug-resistant malaria, scientists discovered that the strain, known as KEL1 / PLA1, had also evolved and detected new genetic mutations that could make it even more drug-resistant.
"We discovered that it had spread aggressively, replacing local malaria parasites, and had become the dominant strain in Vietnam, Laos, and northeastern Thailand," he said. Roberto Amato, who worked with a team from the British Wellcome Sanger Institutes, Oxford University and Mahidol, Thailand. University.
Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites that are carried by mosquitoes and spread by their blood-sucking bites.
According to estimates by the World Health Organization, nearly 220 million people were infected with malaria in 2017 and this disease killed 400,000 of them. The vast majority of cases and deaths involve infants and children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Malaria can be successfully treated with drugs if it is detected early enough, but antimalarial drug resistance is increasing in many parts of the world, particularly in Southeast Asia.
The first-line treatment against malaria in many parts of Asia over the past decade has been a combination of dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine, also known as DHA-PPQ. Researchers have discovered in previous work that a strain of malaria had evolved and spread in Cambodia between 2007 and 2013. This latest study, published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, revealed that she had crossed the borders and tightened her grip.
"The speed at which these resistant malaria parasites have spread in Southeast Asia is very worrying," said Olivo Miotto, who co-directed the work.
"Other drugs may be effective at the moment, but the situation is extremely fragile and this study underscores the need for urgent action," he said.
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