Drug resistant Malaria massively on the rise in Northern Thailand

[webfact]

Drug resistant Malaria massively on the rise in Northern Thailand

 

Picture: The Bangkok Insight

 

Two new studies in the influential and respected The Lancet medical journal indicate that drug resistant strains of malaria are on the rise across parts of SE Asia. 

 

Originally linked through genome studies to have started in Cambodia the resistant strains are now established in Thailand as well as Vietnam and Laos. 

 

CNN reported the potential for a "global health emergency" putting back years of success in the fight against the disease. 

 

(CNN) Drug-resistant strains of malaria are spreading across Southeast Asia, raising fears of a "potential global health emergency," two new studies have found.

 

The reports were published Monday in The Lancet, warning that a multi-drug-resistant strain had evolved and was spreading across Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

 

The new findings come as countries and health experts struggle to fight the parasitic disease. 

 

One mainline drug - DHA-PPQ - now fails in 87% of malaria cases in Thailand's north. 

 

Source: The Bangkok Insight

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-07-24

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[Jonathan Fairfield]

Multidrug-resistant malaria spreading in Southeast Asia: study

 

FILE PHOTO: Anopheles minimus mosquitoes are pictured at a lab in the Public Health Ministry in Bangkok, Thailand, November 9, 2017. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

LONDON (Reuters) - A strain of malaria resistant to two key drugs has spread rapidly from Cambodia and has become dominant in Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand, with a “terrifying prospect” that it could reach Africa, scientists warned on Monday.

 

Using gnomic surveillance to track the spread of drug-resistant malaria, the scientists found that the strain, known as KEL1/PLA1, had also evolved and picked up new genetic mutations that may make it yet more resistant.

 

“We discovered (it) had spread aggressively, replacing local malaria parasites, and had become the dominant strain in Vietnam, Laos and northeastern Thailand,” said Roberto Amato, who worked with a team from Britain’s Wellcome Sanger Institute and Oxford University and Thailand’s Mahidol University.

 

The risk is rising that the new strain could threaten sub-Saharan Africa, where most malaria cases and deaths occur, largely among babies and children.

 

“This highly successful resistant parasite strain is capable of invading new territories and acquiring new genetic properties, raising the terrifying prospect that it could spread to Africa ... as resistance to chloroquine did in the 1980s, contributing to millions of deaths,” said Olivo Miotto of Oxford University, who co-led the work.

 

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites, which are carried by mosquitoes and spread through their blood-sucking bites.

 

Almost 220 million people were infected with malaria in 2017, according to World Health Organization estimates, and 400,000 succumbed to it.

 

Malaria can be treated with medicines if caught early enough, but evolving drug-resistance - such as the spread of chloroquine-resistant malaria across Asia to Africa from the late 1950s to the 1980 - has hampered efforts to eliminate it.

 

The first-line treatment in many parts of Asia in the last decade has been a combination of dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine, also known as DHA-PPQ.

 

Researchers found in previous work that a strain of malaria resistant to this combination had evolved and spread across Cambodia between 2007 and 2013. This latest research, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, found it had crossed borders and tightened its grip.

 

Miotto said further work was now needed to establish how far this resistance had spread and whether it had evolved further - and eventually to understand which drugs would work against resistant malaria parasites.

 

“Other drugs may be effective at the moment but the situation is extremely fragile,” he said.

 

Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Kevin Liffey

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-07-24

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[elcaro]

Would vaccinations work if medicine does not?

[khunPer]

1 hour ago, elcaro said:

Would vaccinations work if medicine does not?

The drug "Malarone" will (still) work, but it's more expensive than the drugs normally used in Southeast Asia and Africa. Malarone is used in at least some European countries, my news-source from today here is in Danish language, but a broser-translate to English might work well.

[Dumbastheycome]

There is or was a proposal to introduce a genetically engineered sterilization of mosquitoes but has never been put to international ratification despite it having the potential to eliminate many vector transmitted diseases. 

Is that perhaps in the interests of population control? 

[soalbundy]

3 minutes ago, Dumbastheycome said:

There is or was a proposal to introduce a genetically engineered sterilization of mosquitoes but has never been put to international ratification despite it having the potential to eliminate many vector transmitted diseases. 

Is that perhaps in the interests of population control? 

These genetically altered mosquitoes (they die before reaching sexual maturity) have been released, forget were,South America I think, it was highly successful, I did read that there was to be a trial in Thailand.

[soalbundy]

1 hour ago, elcaro said:

Would vaccinations work if medicine does not?

There is a short term prophylactic but the side effects can be bad, to be taken when staying for a limited time in malaria affected areas, I don't think you can be immunized otherwise they would have started a program in Africa.

[Jaggg88]

3 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

There is or was a proposal to introduce a genetically engineered sterilization of mosquitoes but has never been put to international ratification despite it having the potential to eliminate many vector transmitted diseases. 

Is that perhaps in the interests of population control? 

No that wasn't implemented in the interest of not destabilizing the whole eco system. It is feared even a small change can have unknown results.

[DrPhibes]

5 hours ago, soalbundy said:

These genetically altered mosquitoes (they die before reaching sexual maturity) have been released, forget were,South America I think, it was highly successful, I did read that there was to be a trial in Thailand.

And then there is this:

 

https://phys.org/news/2019-05-transgenic-fungus-rapidly-malaria-mosquitoes.html

 

Some people wake up to read the newspaper, some other things.

[lonewolf99]

It is the Malaria parasite you need to get rid of not the Mosquito.

Devastating the food chain for bats, fish, amphibians and birds is not the answer.

The Cane Toad menace in Australia is the perfect example of a human cock up on a monumental scale by approaching the problem the wrong way around. 

 

All the best defences against catching Malaria are well known but it seems sleeping under a net, using spray on repellant and covering up most of your body is beyond some people. I have lived and worked in areas of extreme risk in Africa and hardly ever got bitten by following the rules. 

Another simple trick is to wash with the hard yellow bar Dettol soap. Especially around the feet and ankles, arms, hands and neck. The mozzies can't stand the smell. I have stood next to people being eaten alive by mozzies and have had barely any interest shown towards myself by them.

[rickudon]

Vaccination was trialed in Africa, Gambia i think. Results were disappointing. The problem is similar to Flu - a lot of variability in the genome, a vaccination that only works on 10% of the parasites is of very little help, the other strains just replace them. It is also this rapidly evolving genome in Plasmodium that nullifies the anti-malarial medicines so quickly.

[hmficc]

Was it a 12 year old who wrote the “massively” headline?

[kirbi53]

Dengue fever, malaria 

What's next?

[geoffbezoz]

1 minute ago, kirbi53 said:

Dengue fever, malaria 

What's next?

There is always the fall back to flu and don't forget the measles epidemic  but the good news is that Ebola won't happen as there was a very recent government announcement it is being stopped at the border ????

[wisperone]

14 hours ago, hmficc said:

Was it a 12 year old who wrote the “massively” headline?

It's apparently mandatory that every headline contain at least one over the top adjective.