This major threat emerged in the villages on the Thailand-Cambodia border in 2007. Now, scientists and the World Health Organization (WHO) fear that it could spread across the world in no time putting millions of children's lives at risk.
Speaking to ToI, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme chief Dr A Dhariwal said the National Institute of Malaria Research are monitoring Artemisinin resistance in 15 sites, mainly in the north- eastern states and Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. "Chances of resistance is high in a monotherapy. That's why we banned it. We're now using Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT). The threat of a resistant strain is very high," Dr Dhariwal said.
Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told ToI, "diseases have no borders and spreads at an alarming rate. See the case of swine flu. It came to India from the US in no time."
According to WHO director-general Margaret Chan, "ACTs are the gold standard. They are the most effective treatment for falciparum malaria, the most deadly form of malaria. The consequences of widespread resistance to Artemisinin would be catastrophic. Resistance to previous generations of anti-malarial drugs such as chloroquine spread from the same Mekong region to India and then Africa, killing millions."
India records 1.5 million cases of malaria every year, 50% of which are caused by the falciparum malaria. An estimated 18,000 die of malaria in the country.
ACT kills malaria parasite in a human bloodstream within 24 to 36 hours. With the drug-resistant strain, ACT needs up to 120 hours to kill the parasite.
"Combination therapy is a deliberate strategy to delay the development of drug resistance. ACTs deliver a two-punch attack on the malaria parasite. By combining drugs with different mechanisms of action and different time spans of activity, ACTs increase the likelihood that any parasites not killed by one drug will be killed by the second one. The usefulness of these therapies is now under threat," Chan explained.
She added, "the Mekong belt is the historical epicentre for the emergence of drug-resistant malaria parasites. History tells us what to expect."
Every year, there are 250 million cases of malaria infections around the world, causing nearly one million deaths.
WHO has launched a $175 million annual plan to contain and prevent the global spread of the Artemisinin-resistant parasite beyond the Mekong region. The Mekong Delta region is where chloroquine first began to fail in the 1950s before it moved westwards and lost effectiveness in Africa.
