Drug resistant malaria strain in Myanmar causes alarm

A drug resistant strain of malaria has been detected in Myanmar, just 25 kilometres from the Indian border, a new study published in medical journal Lancet said.

The report published on Friday is heightening concern in medical circles over the possibility of its spread westward towards South Asia and Africa, which could endanger millions.

It lends more urgency to calls for a sharply enhanced response to the spread of malaria which is resistant to the drug artemisinin, and which has started and spread in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) – Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar.

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Nirmal Ghosh, Strait Times' Indochina Bureau Chief interviewed Prof Paul Lalvani, Director & Dean of Empower School of Health, and Dr Pascal Ringwald, Coordinator, Drug Resistance and Containment, Global Malaria Programme during the APLMA Reference Group Meeting in Bangkok on 13 February 2015.

The article was published in the Strait Times on 20 February 2015.