Malaria in Africa: a parasite ‘resistant to artemisinin’

A drug-resistant strain of the parasite responsible for malaria has been identified by Rwandan scientists.

The study, published in Nature, found that the parasites could resist treatment with artemisinin – a first-line drug in the fight against the disease.

This is the first time that scientists have observed resistance to artemisinin in Africa.

Researchers warn it “would pose a major threat to public health” on the continent.

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Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program in Rwanda (Rwanda Biomedical Center), the World Health Organization (WHO), Cochin Hospital in Paris and Columbia University ( New York, USA) analyzed blood samples from patients in Rwanda.

They found a particular mutation of the parasite, resistant to artemisinin, in 19 of 257 patients – or 7.4% – from one of the health centers they monitored.

Evolution of parasites

In the article, scientists warned that malaria parasites that developed resistance to earlier drugs are “ suspected to have contributed to millions more deaths from malaria in young African children in the 1980s. ” .

When the first antimalarial drug, chloroquine, was developed, researchers believed the disease would be eradicated within a few years.

But since the 1950s, parasites have evolved to develop resistance to successive drugs.

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