United Press International
http://www.upi.com
http://www.upi.com
May 29, 2009
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, May 29 (UPI) -- Malaria's resistance to treatment in western Cambodia could foretell a global health crisis, a British researcher said.
Malaria in western Cambodia is proving resistant to the artemesinin family of drugs, until now the world's most effective drugs for treating the illness, said Nick Day, director of the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit.
In recent trials, it took up to five days to clear patients' blood of malaria parasites when the drugs previously worked in two or three days, Day said.
While Cambodia long has been a laboratory for malaria research, about half the world's population would be at risk if the resistance to artemesinin drugs grow, Day said. Malaria kills about 1 million people a year now.
In 2006, the World Health Organization warned of a possibility the malaria parasite could become resistant to artemesinin drugs, the BBC reported Friday.
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