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This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development
Report.
The World Health Organization is warning people not to use only one
drug to treat malaria . That
drug is artemisinin. W.H.O. officials say people should take it only in
combination with other malaria drugs. The fear is that artemisinin could
lose its effectiveness if it is misused.
Arata Kochi is the new director of the malaria department at the
W.H.O., the United Nations health agency. He says: "If we lose
artemisinin, we will no longer have an effective cure for malaria." And if
that happens, he says, it might take at least ten years before a new one
could be discovered.
Drug combinations are also used to treat diseases like AIDS and
tuberculosis. Experts say combination treatments are not only more
successful than single-drug, or monotherapy. They also slow the
development of resistance to medicines. The organisms that cause malaria
have already developed resistance to many other drugs.
The W.H.O. has called on eighteen drug manufacturers to immediately
halt the sale of artemisinin by itself. The companies are in China, India,
Vietnam and other countries.
The health agency cannot force them to obey. But there are steps it
could take to pressure companies that continue to sell artemisinin as a
monotherapy. For example, the W.H.O. could urge the World Bank, the Global
Fund and other agencies not to buy drugs from those companies.
Artemisinin comes from a plant called the sweet wormwood. Chinese
researchers discovered it more than thirty years ago. The W.H.O. says
artemisinin is more than ninety-five percent effective in curing malaria
when used correctly with other anti-malarial drugs.
Doctor Kochi says there have been no documented cases yet where
treatment failed because of resistance to artemisinin. But he says there
is concern about decreased reaction to the drug in Southeast Asia. That
area is traditionally where resistance to anti-malaria drugs has first
appeared.
Malaria produces high body temperatures and a dangerous loss of fluids.
The W.H.O. estimates there are more than three hundred million cases of
malaria in the world each year. At least one million people die. Nine out
of ten deaths happen in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. Most
of the victims are young children.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.
Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep
O'Neal. | 
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