Drug-resistant malaria spreads through South East Asia

Health officials are deeply concerned about a strain of drug-resistant malaria that has appeared throughout South East Asia.

The BBC reports that the resistant strain has been found in parts of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The study that evaluated the threat posed by this resistant malaria says that it has not been found in areas of Africa prone to the disease such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Nigeria.

The researchers who compiled the study on the matter said that "radical action" is necessary to prevent the resistant strain's spread.

Russia Today notes that around half of the world's population live in areas where they can be exposed to the disease. More than 600,000 people die from the disease every year. The people most likely to be afflicted with the disease are children under the age of five living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Making matters worse, is that along with resistance to malaria treatments, mosquitoes in 64 countries have developed resistance to the pesticides used to limit their numbers and also prevent malaria's spread.

RT notes that while the spread of drug-resistant malaria is a concern, scientists at the British drug firm GlaxoSmithKline are currently working on a vaccine.

This is not the first time that malaria has evolved faster than humans have been able to eradicate it. From the 1950s to the 1970s a class of drugs known as chloroquines were used to combat the disease. These eventually became ineffective and were replaced by sulphadoxine-pyrimethamines, according to RT. After these too became ineffective, the current class of drugs, artemisinins, were brought into use.

Malaria is defined by a variety of symptoms such trouble breathing or sever fatigue. In pregnant women, the disease can result in stillbirths or death soon after birth. It can also result in a lower birth weight