NAIROBI, November 5, 2009 – Scientists gathered at Nairobi, Kenya for the Pan-African Malaria conference debate on the challenges of malaria drug and insecticide resistance and call on researchers and policymakers to act urgently to contain the problem.
Scientists at the gathering said, “the threat of failure of frontline tools for malaria control and treatment; treated bednets, insecticides, and artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) could leave millions of people vulnerable to the disease, with little recourse for prevention or effective treatment.
“This could reverse the massive gains achieved with these tools over the last five years,” they added.
They said that efforts must be redoubled to develop new classes of effective medicines.
They said that the insecticide research and development pipeline will likewise need to be filled with new active ingredients that malaria-carrying mosquitoes have not yet learned to tolerate.
So far Artemisinin is the most effective front-line drug against malaria in the world today. It was recommended as first-line therapy by the World Health Organsiation (WHO) in 2002 and has saved millions of lives since then.
However, resistance to this life-saving drug is emerging. Some studies published in 2008-2009 reported a doubling of the time to clear the parasite from the blood in some malaria patients in the western region of Cambodia.
However, efficacy at 28 days was maintained, and the patients were still cured with the ACTs they had been given.
According to the experts, a new generation of drug combinations is under development that could one day replace ACTs.
High levels of pyrethroid resistance have already been detected in west and southern Africa, and it appears that this is already having an impact of the effectiveness of bednets.
The International Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) is working in partnership with the major chemical companies to develop new active ingredients. Their partners are using data mining programs to find development candidates for these new active ingredients within their extensive chemical libraries.
The six-day conference at the Kenya International Conference Center (KICC) Nairobi, brought together more than 2000 participants including scientists, policymakers, health care workers, community members, and other experts on the disease.
Malaria is a major killer disease in Africa and approximately 90 percent of the malaria deaths are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).
The disease is transmitted when a person is bitten by an infected female Anopheles mosquito and the symptoms include fever and flu-like illness, such as chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness. These symptoms may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Malaria can also cause anemia and jaundice (yellow coloring of the skin and eyes) because of the loss of red blood cells.
If not treated the disease can lead to death but with proper diagnosis and treatment it can be prevented.