Malaria continues to be endemic in the coast and Amazon regions of Ecuador. Clarifying current Plasmodium falciparum resistance in the country will support malaria elimination efforts. In this study, Ecuadorian P. falciparum parasites were analysed to determine their drug resistance genotypes and phenotypes.
Artemisinins are effective against a variety of parasites and provide the first line of treatment for malaria. Laboratory studies have identified several mechanisms for artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum, including mutations in Kelch13 that are associated with delayed clearance in some clinical isolates, although other mechanisms are likely involved.
Resistance to the mainstay antimalarial drugs is a major concern in the control of malaria. Delayed Plasmodium falciparum parasite clearance has been associated with Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the kelch propeller region (K13). However, SNPs in the Pf-adaptor protein complex 2 mu subunit (Pfap2-mu), Pfcrt and Pfmdr1 are possible markers associated with multi-drug resistance. Here, we explored the prevalence of SNPs in the K13, Pfap2-mu, Pfcrt, and Pfmdr1 in 94 dried blood spot field isolates collected from children aged below 12 years infected with P. falciparum during a cross-sectional study.
SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO SLOW THE RESISTANCE TREADMILL
We investigated the prevalence of the major markers of chloroquine resistance years after the withdrawal of the drug in Nigeria.
Finger prick blood samples were collected from participants presenting with symptoms of malaria in Lagos, Nigeria.
This week WHO reiterated the fragility of the gains the world has made over the last decade through intense deployment of vector control in the fight against malaria. Reuters published an online article on the matter titled 'Insecticide resistance threatens malaria fight'. In it, WHO Director General, Margaret Chan, warns of the seriousness of the situation in Africa and India. Apparently, in ever more places the toolbox, filled with four classes of chemicals, is gradually emptying.
Sometimes you come across articles that blow your mind. You read them and feel your heartbeat increasing. Each sentence you finish makes you wonder more what is going on here. What the politics are, who's really behind it, and what the goal of it is....
Most of us that have worked in the field of malaria for a few decades have gone through periods where we suddenly noticed changes in drug policy. When chloroquine was replaced by sulfadoxine-pyremethamine as a first-line drug, later to be replaced by artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs).
But the world is now faced with a new challenge. That of preventing artemisinin resistance from escaping south-east Asia. Without anything to replace it (yet), this is a looming catastrophe, according to Joel Breman in an interview with TropIKA.net. It may still be confined to the Thai-Cambodia border, although nobody really nows have far it has spread.
