Origins of the current outbreak of multidrug-resistant malaria in southeast Asia: a retrospective genetic study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Antimalarial resistance is rapidly spreading across parts of southeast Asia where dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine is used as first-line treatment for Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The first published reports about resistance to antimalarial drugs came from western Cambodia in 2013. Here, we analyse genetic changes in the P falciparum population of western Cambodia in the 6 years before those reports.

Methods

We analysed genome sequence data on 1492 P falciparum samples from 11 locations across southeast Asia, including 464 samples collected in western Cambodia between 2007 and 2013. Different epidemiological origins of resistance were identified by haplotypic analysis of the kelch13 artemisinin resistance locus and the plasmepsin 2-3 piperaquine resistance locus.<

SUBMITTER: Amato R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5835763 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature