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Malaria drugs fail for the first time in UK

An important malaria drug has failed to cure patients in the UK for the first time, according to doctors.

The combination drug failed to cure four patients on whom it was used to treat malaria. All four patients had recently been to Africa, and the failure of the drug is an early sign that the parasite is developing resistance to known treatments. The patients responded well to initial therapy, returning to their homes, but were readmitted to hospital a month later, when symptoms reappeared. A medical team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said it is too soon to panic, despite stressing that situations could worsen and that urgent reappraisal of the levels of drug resistance in Africa is needed.

Professor David Lalloo, dean of Clinical Sciences and International Public Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said, “This is an interesting and well conducted study and again emphasises the incredible ability of the malaria parasite to rapidly evolve to become resistant to antimalarial treatment. It is too early to fully evaluate the significance of these findings but the paper highlights the need to be constantly vigilant when treating patients with malaria and larger studies are certainly needed to explore this issue further.”

The chief medical officer for England, Professor Dame Sally Davies, said the failure was a warning that the world has a great need to develop new drugs that are able to keep up with resistance.

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