Abstract
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.
Highlights
Since 2000, a good deal of progress has been made in malaria control
This review discusses the challenges related to malaria elimination, ongoing approaches to tackle the impact of drug-resistant malaria, and upcoming antimalarial drugs
An insufficient supply of affordable and quality-assured Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACT) has opened the room for parallel circulation of falsified and substandard products—antimalarial drugs appearing among the top lists [7, 8]
Summary
The emergence of artemisinin resistance, its spread to Southeast Asia (SEA) countries and some resistance reports from African countries are the indicators of the current threat to malaria control and elimination effort [14, 15]. This manversus-parasite arms race related to drug development and the emergence and spread of resistance against such drugs dictates an urgent need for new antimalarial agents [16]. Given the large number of population in MECs taking the medication and the underdeveloped health care system, the drugs need to be well tolerated and safe in humans. Precompetitive approaches have been suggested and being applied to overcome these challenges and make more drugs available [21]
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