| Thursday, August 24, 2023 Caption: This colorized scanning electron micrograph shows a red blood cell infected with malaria parasites (blue). The small bumps on the infected cell show how the parasite can avoid destruction and cause inflammation. Uninfected cells (pink) have smoother surfaces. Credit: NIAID Emerging resistance to common malaria treatments in Uganda could be connected to inconsistent use of measures to control mosquito populations, according to new findings published by NIAID-funded scientists in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trend is worrisome, they say, because resistance mutations they tracked are taking root and spreading. For decades a combination of measures has resulted in effective malaria control in Africa, including treatments with artemisinins to rapidly eliminate malaria parasites from the bloodstream. Beginning in 2008 studies in Southeast Asia identified poor results from artemisinins. The primary reason: A protein in Plasmodium falciparum, the main parasite that causes malaria, had developed mutations that made it partially resistant to artemisinins. The NEJM study identified five of these mutations, each of which may lead to partial resistance, that have emerged in different parts of Uganda. The study emphasizes the importance of maintaining malaria control interventions, with attention to malaria outbreaks, to decrease the likelihood of emergence or spread of drug resistance.  |
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