Drug-Resistant Malaria Brought to Africa from Asia

In a new study, researchers present molecular evidence to show that malaria parasites in Africa that are resistant to the drug pyrimethamine actually originated in southeast Asia.

In a new study, researchers present molecular evidence to show that malaria parasites in Africa that are resistant to the drug pyrimethamine actually originated in southeast Asia.Previous reports have suggested that African strains resistant to chloroquine, another widely used anti-malaria drug, came from southeast Asia. In light of the new findings, the authors speculate that resistance to both drugs may have been brought to Africa by one malaria parasite from Asia.As reported in the journal Science, Dr. Cally Roper, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, and colleagues conducted a genetic analysis on parasites from Africa and southeast Asia.The authors found that a genetic mutation in the African parasites, which produces resistance to pyrimethamine, was also present among the southeast Asia parasites.Import of southeast Asian parasites has “led to the demise of the two affordable drugs that have been the mainstay of malaria treatment in Africa,” the researchers note. “These data demonstrate that antimalarial drug resistance is an international problem requiring a coordinated international response.”(Source: Reuters, Science, August 20, 2004)