P. vivax antimalarial drug resistance likely overestimated, researchers say

Based on data collected during a study in Cambodia, researchers said antimalarial drug resistance in Plasmodium vivax parasites is likely overestimated and presents less of a problem than the relapse of dormant parasites.

Writing in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Jean Popovici, PhD, researcher in the Malaria Molecular Epidemiology Unit at the Pasteur Institute in Cambodia, and colleagues noted that P. vivax malaria is the most widespread human malaria parasite in the world and is often reported to be resistant to chloroquine (CQ), including in Cambodia, where high rates of CQ treatment failure have been reported and where artemisinin combination therapy is now recommended as first-line treatment for uncomplicated cases. They said that scientists’ understanding of vivax malaria is largely derived from studies about P. falciparum.