This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English DevelopmentReport.
The United Nations has decided to support a traditional Chinesemedicine as a way to fight malaria. The drug is called artemisinin.It comes from a plant called the sweet wormwood.
Chinese researchers discovered artemisinin more than thirty yearsago. Tests took place in the early nineteen-nineties in Vietnam. Thecountry had a malaria crisis at that time. The drug helped reducethe rate of deaths by ninety-seven percent.
Now, world health agencies are trying to secureone-hundred-million treatments of artemisinin. In addition, theGlobal Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has given money toeleven countries to buy the drug. It has also told thirty-four othernations to cancel their requests for two older drugs. Instead, thosenations have been told to order the new drug.
Malaria is caused by parasites.These organisms are passed to humans through a bite from a mosquito.Malaria produces high temperatures and causes the body to losedangerous amounts of fluid.
The World Health Organization estimates that each year aboutthree-million people become infected with malaria. About one-millionof them die. Malaria is especially dangerous to children andpregnant women.
Hundreds of years ago, people in what is now Peru treated thedisease with the bark covering the cinchona tree. Two Frenchresearchers in eighteen-twenty identified the active substance inthe bark as quinine. This became the main drug used to prevent andcure some forms of malaria.
Today, mostly manufactured drugs are used to prevent theparasites from developing in the body. The most common ones arechloroquine and mefloquine. Both must be taken once a week. Anotherdrug is doxycycline. It must be taken every day.
But treating malaria is difficult. The parasites can develop aresistance to drugs. Health experts hope to prevent this in the caseof artemisinin by giving it in combination with other medicines.
Experts also warn about the overuse of malaria drugs by peoplewho do not have the disease. They say that sick people often mistakeinfluenza or other diseases for malaria and take anti-malarialmedicine. Health experts say greater use of home tests for malariacould reduce the problem.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. This is Robert Cohen.