Clinics on Cambodian-Thai border aim to prevent spread of drug-resistant malaria

BBC News examines "a worrying drop in the effectiveness of the artemisinin-based drugs" against malaria along the Cambodian-Thai border, and how clinics are attempting to combat the trend by offering monetary incentives to patients to complete treatment regimens. "Thanks to the efforts of health workers ... , and the widespread availability of treatment, malaria still only kills a handful of people in Thailand each year," according to the BBC. "The focus now is on trying to monitor and contain artemisinin drug resistance into a few hotspots, prolonging the drug's effective lifespan globally until alternative treatments are available," the news service writes, adding, "Africa's hopes of maintaining its progress rests firmly on South East Asia's efforts." Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, executive director of Roll Back Malaria and the former health minister of Mali, said if drug-resistant malaria reached Africa, it would be a "massive crisis" because there is not an alternative drug to the usually highly effective artemisinin-based drugs, according to BBC (Fisher, 11/22).