As if I don’t have enough things to worry about regarding my son on his gap year – what with precarious balancing on elephants and trekking dramas NOW I’ve got resistant malaria to worry about.
Apparently scientists have confirmed that there are resistant strains of the malaria parasite on the border between Thailand and Burma AND especially in parts of western Cambodia – which is where he and his mates are going any minute now.
Researchers say that the rise of resistance means the effort to eliminate malaria is “seriously compromised” and Professor Francois Nosten, who is part of the research team that has carried out the latest work, says the development is “very serious. It would certainly compromise the idea of eliminating malaria that’s for sure and will probably translate into a resurgence of malaria in many places,”
The “Spread of drug-resistant malaria parasites within South East Asia and overspill into sub-Saharan Africa, where most malaria deaths occur, would be a public health disaster resulting in millions of deaths.”
According to the World Malaria Report 2011 malaria was responsible for killing an estimated 655,000 people in 2010 – more than one every minute. A majority of these were young children and pregnant women.
So what solutions are there other than to try and get everyone to wrap themselves into a mosquito net all day every day?
