2009-02-09
PHNOM PENH, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- An official of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Cambodia has expressed its trust in artemisinin for its effectiveness to prevent malaria, the Phnom Penh Post reported on Monday.
Widespread use of artemisinin in a combination or co-formulated pill is central to its administration, which can in effect fend off resistance and contain malaria, the English-language newspaper quoted Pascal Ringwald, WHO malaria coordinator, as saying.
Ringwald acknowledged that two studies, including the one published last December in The New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that artemisinin has become less effective, but dismissed the idea that drug-resistant malaria strains are likely to spread.
"There are some cases (of resistance), but they have been contained. We have the combination drug that still works," said Ringwald.
Artemisinin is designed to be taken with a drug that stays in the blood longer and clears out residual malaria parasites, said the coordinator, adding that the risk of resistance development rises when the drug is administrated without partner drug.
"The delay in eradication is due to monotherapy still being on the market," said Ringwald.
Malaria is the major epidemic in Cambodia and claimed dozens of lives each year.
Editor: Sun Yunlong
PHNOM PENH, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- An official of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Cambodia has expressed its trust in artemisinin for its effectiveness to prevent malaria, the Phnom Penh Post reported on Monday.
Widespread use of artemisinin in a combination or co-formulated pill is central to its administration, which can in effect fend off resistance and contain malaria, the English-language newspaper quoted Pascal Ringwald, WHO malaria coordinator, as saying.
Ringwald acknowledged that two studies, including the one published last December in The New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that artemisinin has become less effective, but dismissed the idea that drug-resistant malaria strains are likely to spread.
"There are some cases (of resistance), but they have been contained. We have the combination drug that still works," said Ringwald.
Artemisinin is designed to be taken with a drug that stays in the blood longer and clears out residual malaria parasites, said the coordinator, adding that the risk of resistance development rises when the drug is administrated without partner drug.
"The delay in eradication is due to monotherapy still being on the market," said Ringwald.
Malaria is the major epidemic in Cambodia and claimed dozens of lives each year.
Editor: Sun Yunlong
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