Thailand - WHO warns ASEAN about drug-resistant malaria

BANGKOK: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday hailed major gains in the fight against malaria, one of the developing world's biggest killers, as part of World Malaria Day celebrations.

However, WHO warned that universal access to treatment remains elusive, and that concerted regional coordination is needed to stop the spread of drug-resistant malaria in Southeast Asia.

The poor and migrant populations, who may lack access to medical care and treatment, are the most vulnerable to the disease.

Strains of malaria resistant to first-line treatment have also emerged along the Thailand-Cambodia and Thailand-Myanmar borders, rendering even the best drugs ineffective against the endemic disease.

The drug-resistant malaria parasites take longer to kill and have also cropped up in Southern Vietnam, putting the entire Greater Mekong sub-region at risk.

Although one million lives have been saved over the last decade, substandard or fake drugs are making malaria harder than ever to eradicate, WHO said.

Another drug, primaquine, has been shown to cure malaria by killing off the parasites before they can reproduce and infect other people, said Dr Pascal Ringwald, coordinator of the WHO Global Malaria Programme.

However, the drug is not without complications.

"There is a problem of implementing primaquine, because this drug creates haemolysis (uncontrolled destruction of red blood cells) in patients that have deficiency in an enzyme," Dr Ringwald said.

"And if they (patients) are deficient in this enzyme, ... this drug will in fact destroy your red blood cells. And people will develop severe anemia (a condition in which the body does not have enough health red blood cells)."

"This is why the drug cannot be given as simple as that," Dr Ringwald added.

The prevention of the spread of drug-resistant malaria should be a top priority before the integration of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, WHO said.

If the issue is not addressed, opening borders to easier economic migration may prove to have a very dangerous downside when it comes to malaria transmission, WHO added.

- CNA/wm