NEW PLASMODIUM MALARIA TREATMENT GUIDELINES ISSUES BY THE W.H.O


As yet another step towards combating drug resistance in Africa, the WHO has lowered the resistance-threshold recommended for treatment policy change from 25% to 10% as assessed by standard the WHO protocols in children under 5 years of age, meaning that a more effective treatment should be adopted when the proportion of treatment failures to the old treatment reaches 10%.

Also according to the WHO, ACTs (Artemisin Combination Therapies) are currently the most effective medicine available to cure uncomplicated falciparum malaria.
So,"It is critical that artemisinins be used correctly," said Dr LEE Jong-wook, the WHO's Director-General in the Press release of January 19th, 2006 that called for an immediate halt to provision of single-drug artemisinin malaria pills.
The use of single-drug artemisinin treatment – or monotherapy – exposes to the risk of development of  resistances. When used correctly in combination with other anti-malarial drugs in Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs), artemisinin is nearly 95% effective in curing malaria and the parasite is highly unlikely to become drug resistant.

Source: The WHO Web site
1. Facts on ACTs (Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies) - An update on recent progress in policy and access to treatment - January 2006.
2. New malaria treatment guidelines issued by the WHO - Press release 19 January 2006