Studies by Juntendo University and others have shown that mosquito-borne protozoan-induced infections and types that are resistant to the most effective treatments for malaria are spreading rapidly in East Africa.

Malaria is one of the three major infectious diseases along with tuberculosis and AIDS, and according to the WHO (World Health Organization), more than 200 million people are infected every year and more than 400,000 people die every year.



International research groups such as Juntendo University and Guru University in Uganda have investigated how widespread malaria is resistant to the most effective treatment, artemisinin, in Uganda, the American medical journal New England Journal of Medicine.・ Published in "The New England Journal of Medicine".



According to the results, 14 out of 240 patients examined by the research group, or 5.8%, were resistant to "artemisinin", and 13 of them were confirmed to have a characteristic mutation showing resistance to the protozoan gene. about it.



In addition, the number of people who found this mutation in their blood tests increased rapidly to about 16% of the total in 2019, which was not found when examined in 2015.



Protozoans resistant to "artemisinin" were first reported by the same research group three years ago, and this time it is confirmed that they are actually widespread.



Professor Toshihiro Mita of Juntendo University says, "We need to strengthen the monitoring system for resistant malaria and develop other therapeutic agents."