Drug resistant bug can’t be treated
MEDICS are calling for an urgent appraisal of malaria drugs after four patients failed to respond to the most commonly used treatment.
The drugs were unable to cure them, in an alarming sign the parasite may have developed resistance for the first time.
Experts cautioned that it was too early to panic. But they warned things could suddenly get worse and demanded an urgent appraisal of drugresistance levels in Africa.
The four Brits with malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, had to seek alternative treatment after the drug did not work.
Research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the treatment failure was due to strains of the disease showing reduced susceptibility and a “potential first sign of drug resistance” to artemether-lumefantrine or AL.
Dr Colin Sutherland insisted treating patients with AL in the UK is “considered to be working well” but admitted the strategy “might need reviewing”.
Around 2,000 Brits are treated for malaria every year after trips abroad.
Dr Sutherland said: “Fortunately there are other effective drugs available.
“All the patients were identified by selfreferral, which suggests more cases of treatment failure in the UK may have occurred. “Frontline doctors should be alert to the possibility of artemisinin-based drugs failing and assist with the collection of information about specific travel destinations. “A concerted effort to monitor AL outcomes in UK malaria patients needs to be made to determine whether our frontline malaria treatment drug is under threat.” According to the World Health Organisation, nearly half of the planet’s population – 3.2 billion people – are at risk of malaria. In 2015, there were 212 million malaria cases and an estimated 429,000 malaria-related deaths. The LSHTM said the first documented cases of AL failing to treat UK patients happened between October 2015 and February 2016. Although malaria is not found in the UK, around 2,000 cases are diagnosed every year due to infected travellers returning from countries where the disease is endemic, mainly in Africa. Dr Sutherland said: “These cases act as a warning for Africa. “Drug resistance is one of the biggest threats we face in fighting malaria and is already starting to occur in parasite strains prevalent in parts of South-East Asia.” A Public Health England spokesman said: “We strongly urge travellers going to countries where malaria is present to seek advice from their GP, a specialist travel clinic or pharmacy about the appropriate measures to take, including preventive medicines.”