23 September, 2017
If nothing is done, its spread could extend to other areas such as India or Africa, where malaria is already doing numerous victims.
The co-author of an article published on Thursday in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases added: "It started 10 years ago in western Cambodia". It is extremely fit and spreads effortlessly. This resistance is taking over. "Vietnam needs to change now".
Researchers first identified the anti-malaria drug resistant strain in 2007 in Cambodia, and found it has since spread through Thailand, Laos and southern Vietnam.
"It is alarming that this strain is spreading so quickly through the whole region and we fear it can spread further [and eventually] jump to Africa". The World Health Organisation claims that 1.5 million people are infected with malaria in southeast Asia annually, resulting in over 600 deaths. It is caused by a parasite that is spread by blood-sucking mosquitoes and is a major killer of children. The first choice treatment of malaria involves a combination of two powerful anti-malarial drugs, artemisinin and piperaquine.
Drug resistance, whether it be to malaria, bacteria, or fungi, is an emerging theme in the first two decades of the 21st century.
For experts, the development of the new strain in Southeast Asia is stressing, despite the fact that the quantity of cases is restricted.
A highly drug-resistant malaria superbug has spread from Cambodia to the southern part of Vietnam, testing the limits of the country's treatment capabilities, scientists said.
To reduce the risk of a new massacre, Arjen Dondorp also coordinates the program of the global Fund against malaria in the five countries of the Greater Mekong (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Burma), with a budget of $ 243 million over three years (2017 to 2020), in the context of a global effort to stop this latest generation of malaria.
He advocates treatment at a beginning time of the ailment, which will require group malaria laborers in even the most remote zones in danger.
