Anti-malarials, from China to Africa

[Snowy Owl]

Anti-malarials, from China to Africa
Posted by Ivan Oransky
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/43752/
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Last month, Merrill Goozner reported on the success of artemisinin, in combination with other drugs, to treat malaria in Thailand and China. Reuters reported last week that the Li Guoqian, the first person to use artemisinin in a human trial, now wants to use artemisinin to eradicate malaria on the African island nation of Comoros. (Read Goozner's profile of Li's work here .)

As has been discussed on ProMEDmail, Li probably gets the life cycle of infected mosquitoes wrong (it's 10-14 days, not 30). Commentators also point out that it's somewhat unrealistic to expect that you can wipe out malaria in any given area, even if it's an island, because of air and sea travel. But the project certainly has the potential to dramatically lower the disease burden.