Scientists on Thursday confirmed the first clinical evidence of drug-resistant mutations of the parasite that leads to malaria making inroads in Africa.
There have been concerns for long about the emergence of such mutations across the continent which makes up for over 90 per cent of malaria deaths worldwide in 2019.
A new report published in The Lancet has confirmed these fears.
According to the trials, the disease persisted longer in children who were receiving standard treatment for malaria if they were infected with mutant strains of the parasite.
Still, there is high efficacy of Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), but scientists insist on an “urgent need” for more monitoring in Rwanda, where the study was based, as well in other neighbouring nations.
“Our study shows that resistant isolates are starting to become more common,” lead author Aline Uwimana, a researcher at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre in Kigali was quoted as saying by news agency, AFP.
ACT’s, introduced in the early 2000s, is one of the most common and widely used treatments for malaria.
In this treatment, the artemisinin component clears most of the pathogens from the infected body within three days and a long-acting partner drug kills the rest of the parasites.
If the artemisinin component doesn’t work within three days, it means that the parasites have developed resistance to this.
Evidence from the Mekong region has proved that once artemisinin resistance becomes prevalent, resistance to the partner drug generally follows, causing the failure of ACT treatment.
(WION)