Emergence of Artemisinin-Resistant Plasmodium falciparum in East Africa

The artemisinins are the cornerstone of current antimalarial treatments. Artesunate is the drug of choice for severe malaria. Artemisinin combination therapies are first-line treatments for uncomplicated falciparum malaria and serve as alternatives to chloroquine for the other types of malaria. These highly effective and well tolerated antimalarials have contributed substantially to global reductions in malaria deaths and complications. The first clear evidence of artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum parasites came 15 years ago in Western Cambodia. This finding had an ominous precedent. This was the same place from which chloroquine resistance arose first in the late 1950s. Chloroquine resistance, and . . .