"Vigilance" against malaria needed

There needs to be continued "vigilance" against the spread of malaria, a new report has recommended.

A Cochrane Systematic Review of the current treatments of malaria noted that the combination therapies advised by the World Health Organisation for dealing with mild malaria are adequate.

However, the researchers indicated that selected trials of some combinations had high failure rates and more work needs to be done.

There were failure rates of above ten per cent for all the antimalarial combinations evaluated.

Lead researcher David Sinclair, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool, said: "Patterns of resistance change from place to place and over time, so these results have to be interpreted with some caution.

"Our findings emphasise the need for continued vigilance in the monitoring of malaria and the development of resistance to antimalarial drugs."

The report also called for more research into treatments suitable for infants and pregnant women.

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