Efforts Made to Eliminate Drug-Resistant Malaria and Its Challenges

Since 2000, a good deal of progress has been made in malaria control. However, there is still an unacceptably high burden of the disease and numerous challenges limiting advancement towards its elimination and ultimate eradication. Among the challenges is the antimalarial drug resistance, which has been documented for almost all antimalarial drugs in current use. As a result, the malaria research community is working on the modification of existing treatments as well as the discovery and development of new drugs to counter the resistance challenges. To this effect, many products are in the pipeline and expected to be marketed soon. In addition to drug and vaccine development, mass drug administration (MDA) is under scientific scrutiny as an important strategy for effective utilization of the developed products. This review discusses the challenges related to malaria elimination, ongoing approaches to tackle the impact of drug-resistant malaria, and upcoming antimalarial drugs.