Malaria parasite resistance vicious cycle

Abstract

Objective: This paper analyzes the "vicious" cycle of malaria treatment as a consequence of restricted access to anti-malarial drugs. Literature review: Lack of public health policies in affected countries limits access to medicines. This leads patients to acquire drugs in "parallel" markets under the risk of quality deviations or falsified products. The use of these products can aggravate the disease, lead to death, and contribute to parasite resistance to drugs. There are reports of Plasmodium strains resistant to different antimalarial drugs, this creates the need to look for new therapeutic alternatives. These new drugs begin to be counterfeit or people use low quality drugs, selectung resistant strains again, making necessary further research to identify other therapeutic possibilities, restarting this vicious cycle. Final considerations: Therefore, it is important to create conditions for using good quality medicines supervised by health professionals, and ensure research of new alternatives, evaluating their activity on the parasite or the disease.