Emerging drug--resistance and guidelines for treatment of malaria

The increasing prevalence of multi-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria worldwide is a serious public health threat to the global control of malaria, especially in poor countries like Pakistan. In many countries choloroquine-resistance is a huge problem, accounting for more than 90% of malaria cases. In Pakistan, resistance to choloroquin is on the rise and reported in up to 16- 62% of Plasmodium falciparum. four to 25% of Plasmodium falciparum also reported to be resistant to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and several cases of delayed parasite clearance have been observed in patients with Plasmodium falciparum malaria treated with quinine. In this article we have introduced the concept of artemisinin- based combination therapy (ACT) and emphasize the use of empiric combination therapy for all patients with Plasmodium falciparum malaria to prevent development of drug resistance and to obtain additive and synergistic killing of parasite.