Emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance
Every year, about 1 million people worldwide die from malaria,
while 300-400 million become infected. The groups suffering most
are young children and pregnant women. Malaria's economic
impact is huge, reducing economic growth rate by an estimated 1.3%
per year in most endemic areas.In the absence of an effective
vaccine, access to safe and effective treatment still remains the
mainstay in the control of the disease. However, the efficacy of
this control strategy is hampered by the emergence and spread of
drug resistant malaria which may lead to excess of mortality. In
the present study, we investigated the dynamics of malaria parasite
resistance molecular markers in two areas of different transmission
intensity with two different drug pressures. The data showed that
Antimalarial drug resistance can develop very fast even under very
low drug pressure and that the molecular markers could be used as
an early warning tool to assess the spread of antimalarial
resistance. Thus, careful baseline evaluation of the molecular
resistance background could help when drug policy has to be
changed.
Dr Christian Nsanzabana did his PhD on antimalarial drug resistance at the University of Neuchatel and the Swiss Tropical Institute in Switzerland. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Francisco. His main research interest is the emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance.
