Drug-Resistant Malaria Poses Risk to Africa

 

     Scientists have discovered a parasite across Southeast Asia that is resistant to the drug Artemisinin, the leading drug in preventing and treating malaria. First discovered in Cambodia back in 2008, the drug-resistant parasite spread throughout Southeast Asia. The fact that, when tested in the laboratory by Dr. Rick Fairhurst from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) in the United States, the parasite was found to be indiscriminate in terms of hosts. It turns out that Anopholes coluzzii, Africa’s main malaria-carrying mosquito, was just as readily infected as the two Southeast Asian mosquitos infected in the lab, thus raising concerns of a possible spread and infection of the drug-resistant parasite in Africa, which could prove fatal. The fact that the parasite could jump between two different species of mosquito, which have been separated by years of evolution, is concerning as this could lead to a global catastrophe due to the parasite’s resistance to the main drug in fighting malaria.

Source(s): http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34583854