The Lancet
Apr 26, 2014 Volume 383 Number 9927 p1437 – 1520
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current
Editorial
Time to contain artemisinin resistance
The Lancet
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The theme of this year’s World Malaria Day (April 25) is elimination: invest in the future and defeat malaria. Good progress has been made towards controlling malaria and reducing disease incidence. Since 2000, mortality rates from malaria have fallen by 42% worldwide and by 49% in Africa. This success can be attributed, in part, to the use of artemisinin-based combination therapy in malaria-endemic countries. But does resistance to artemisinins in the Greater Mekong Subregion threaten a global health catastrophe?
Comment
Malaria: a molecular marker of artemisinin resistance
Nicholas J White
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Global malaria morbidity and mortality are falling.1 Elimination of malaria is back on the table. Things are looking good—or are they? The two main developments that have achieved these advances—insecticides to repel or kill mosquitoes, and drugs to prevent and treat malaria—are both falling to resistance. Artemisinin, the cornerstone of antimalarial therapeutics, is the latest casualty. The artemisinin derivatives are remarkable antimalarials; they are very safe and well tolerated, and are rapidly effective.