Africa cannot afford to wait for malaria treatment failure

For more than two decades, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have been the backbone of malaria treatment across Africa. They have saved millions of lives and averted many malaria cases. That foundation is now under threat. Artemisinin partial resistance (ART-R) is now being detected using molecular surveillance across eastern Africa, the Horn of Africa, and southern Africa. It has already been confirmed in four countries: Rwanda, Uganda, Eritrea and Tanzania, with signals reported in several neighbouring countries [1].