Urgent action is needed to confront artemisinin partial resistance in African malaria parasites

Abstract

Resistance to antimalarial drugs is a recurring challenge for effective treatment of Plasmodium falciparum infection and for achieving the goal of eliminating malaria. Beginning with chloroquine, resistance has compromised the efficacies of most major classes of antimalarial drugs. Partial resistance to artemisinin (ART-R) is becoming a major threat to the efficacy of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) and intravenous artesunate, which are critical for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria and severe malaria, respectively. Already ubiquitous throughout the Greater Mekong subregion of Southeast Asia, ART-R has emerged in several countries in eastern Africa. For the prevention of a potential public health disaster in sub-Saharan Africa, the time for decisive action to confront emerging ART-R is now.