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Managing Malaria by Tackling Resistance to Artemisinin-Based Combination Therapy (ACT): Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The emergence of artemisinin resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasites has the potential to cause a global public health crisis. Currently there are no drugs to replace the artemisinins. The most advanced drugs in the antimalarial drug development pipeline will still need about 5-6 years for approval by regulatory authorities. Resistance to artemisinin does not result in ACT treatment failures as long as the partner drugs are effective. Thus, public health workers still have one option to keep ACTs effective: improve surveillance for resistance to artemisinin and its partner drugs. This is crucial for faster selection of an effective partner drug in ACTs so as to prevent the emergence and spread of multi-drug resistant malaria.

Dinkar Sahal, Nekpen Erhunse

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