By Stephanie Nebehay
11/18/2010
A form of malaria resistant to the most powerful drugs available may have emerged along the Thai-Myanmar border as well as Vietnam, and containment measures are planned, the World Health Organization said.
Clinical trials are due to begin soon in Myanmar and if they confirm artemisinin-resistant malaria in some patients, it means millions living in the border area could be potentially exposed to the longer-to-treat form, a WHO official told Reuters.
Artemisinin-resistant malaria first broke out in the Mekong region along the Thai-Cambodian border by early 2007, raising fears that a dangerous new form of the mosquito-borne disease could be spreading across the globe.
"We have some early warning signals that apart from the border of Thailand and Cambodia, we could have some problems emerging at the border between Myanmar and Thailand and also in one province of Vietnam," Dr. Pascal Ringwald of the WHO's global malaria program told a news briefing.
Malaria infects about 243 million people a year and causes an estimated 863,000 deaths, making it a major killer, especially among African children.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40261549/ns/health-infectious_diseases/
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