Drug-resistant malaria threatens to spread from Burma, say researchers

Oxford scientists warn parasite impervious to the key drug artemsinin has been found in testing near Indian border and could emerge in Africa

Malaria with total resistance to the antimalarial drug artemisinin has taken hold in Burma and spread close to the border with India, threatening to render crucial medicines useless, scientists have warned.

If the resistant parasite reached India it would pose a serious threat to the chances of global control and eradication of the killer mosquito-borne disease, said Charles Woodrow of the Mahidol-Oxford tropical medicine research unit.