Antimalarial drug resistance in uncomplicated and severe falciparum malaria in Asia and Africa

This talk was given for World Malaria Day event by the 2023 George Macdonald Medal recipient, Professor Arjen M. Dondorp. He highlighted the emergence of artemisinin resistance in the Greater Mekong Subregion and its subsequent spread to Sub-Saharan Africa, threatening the efficacy of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) and injectable artesunate—the primary treatments for uncomplicated and severe malaria, respectively. Dondorp discusses the clinical and public health implications of this resistance and emphasizes the urgency of developing strategies to counteract it, including enhanced surveillance and novel therapeutic approaches. His work underscores the critical need for global collaboration to mitigate the impact of drug-resistant malaria.