6.2.8  Drug resistance in malaria parasites

You will learn about the medicines used to treat malaria in Study Session 8. These drugs kill the malaria parasite inside the human body. However, similar to the insecticide resistance mentioned above, after repeated use of an anti-malaria medicine, the parasite can develop resistance to that particular drug or to similar medicines. As a result, the parasites inside the human body can no longer be killed and patients cannot be cured unless new drugs are developed for treatments. If drug-resistant malaria parasites are not cleared by treatment from infected individuals, they are easily picked up by vector mosquitoes, and transmitted to new susceptible individuals who then develop drug-resistant malaria. Moreover, more people who are not getting cured by drug treatment means that more will die of malaria.