Preventive Measures and Treatment of Drug Resistant Malaria
Malaria is mostly a preventable but devastating parasite disease widely prevalent in underdeveloped countries. Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by the protozoan Plasmodium parasites. The annual incidence of malaria is about 515 million people and malaria mortality accounts for nearly 3 million people, the majority of whom are young children in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Due to climate change and the gradual warming of the temperate regions the future distribution of the malaria disease might include regions which are today seen as safe. Currently, malaria control requires an integrated approach comprising of mainly prevention, including vector control and the use of effective prophylactic medicines, and treatment of infected patients with antimalarial drugs. The antimalarial chloroquine, which was in the past a mainstay of malaria control, is now ineffective in most malaria areas and resistance to other antimalarial drugs is also increasing rapidly. Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) are now generally considered as the best current treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Such combination therapies are currently recommend by the World Health Organization because of widespread resistance of the disease to conventional drug therapies, such as chloroquine, sulfadoxine, pyrimethamine and amodiaquine, has increased. ACTs are the most effective drug treatments currently. ACTs produce a very rapid therapeutic response to malaria and should be adopted worldwide