Drug-resistant Malaria strain has been found. A new threat to global health has been detected 25 km from the Indian border with the discovery of a drug resistant strain of malaria.

The malaria type has been detected in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, also known as Burma, but not in Africa.

The deadly strain ability to shut off the effect of ‘Artemisinin’- the best available drug to fight the vector-borne disease, has been spreading since it emerged in south East Asia. Scientists have described the development as very alarming.

WHO had earlier launched a $175 million annual plan to contain and prevent the global spread of the artemisinin-resistant parasite beyond the Mekong region. The Mekong Delta region is where chloroquine first began to fail in the 1950s before it moved westwards and lost effectiveness in Africa.

Every year, there are 250 million cases of malaria infections around the world, causing nearly one million deaths. Malaria deaths have dropped by 30% worldwide since the introduction of artemisinin-based combination therapies in the late 1990s.