Signs of Drug Resistance Rattle Experts, Trigger Bold Plan

Abstract

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA—“A catastrophic scenario,” one researcher calls it. “A global disaster,” predicts another, contemplating what could happen if malaria parasites worldwide developed resistance against the new artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) that have become the gold standard. Large parts of the world would have no drugs to fall back on, and malaria cases and deaths could soar, erasing hope that the world might be on the eve of a huge reduction in the disease. Yet resistance against ACTs is precisely what now seems to be developing in western Cambodia, along the Thai border, according to several studies presented here last week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).