Malaria parasites with a new drug defense are spreading rapidly
Malaria parasites in Uganda are showing reduced sensitivity to the standard artemether-lumefantrine drug treatment. Researchers are investigating the genetic mutations behind this resistance, which has led to treatment failures in some patients.
Why it matters
The emergence of drug-resistant malaria threatens global public health efforts to control and eradicate the disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
Malaria parasites with reduced sensitivity to two key drugs are spreading rapidly in Uganda, raising concerns about a widely used treatment.
When malaria hits, the standard treatment across much of Africa is a short course of pills carrying two different drugs. The pairing is deliberate. A parasite that shrugs off one drug is supposed to be finished off by the other.
In Uganda, parasites carrying one set of DNA changes now need more of both drugs to stop them in their tracks. Those parasites were absent from samples taken in 2004. They’re now in most infections in the north of the country.
That isn’t proof the treatment has stopped working.
Every drug measurement was made on parasites in a dish, not on patients taking pills, and nobody has shown that dish results predict whether a person recovers.
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