The threat of antimalarial drug resistance

Borimas Hanboonkunupakarn; Nicholas J White

doi:10.1186/s40794-016-0027-8

The threat of antimalarial drug resistance

Trop Dis Travel Med Vaccines. 2016 Jul 7:2:10. doi: 10.1186/s40794-016-0027-8. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Borimas Hanboonkunupakarn^{1

2}, Nicholas J White^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, 420/6 Ratchawithi Rd, Ratchathewi, Bangkok, 10400 Thailand.
² Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
³ Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Abstract

The battle between man and malaria has continued for thousands of years. Antimalarial drugs are essential weapons to fight the disease, but their efficacy is threatened by drug resistance which continues to emerge creating a major obstacle to malaria control and jeopardizing renewed hopes for elimination. As 2016 is the first year under WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030, it is a good time to ponder the progress of both sides and plan for the future.

Keywords: Antimalarial drug resistance; Artemisinin; Chloroquine; Malaria; Plasmodium falciparum; Southeast Asia.

Publication types

Review