Antimalarial drugs are medicines that prevent or treat malaria, a disease which takes a great toll on human health and well-being, particularly in tropical regions including Africa south of the Sahara, South and Southeast Asia, Oceania, and parts of the Americas. In recent years, strains of Plasmodium have become increasingly resistant to more antimalarial drugs and researchers have stepped up efforts to revise antimalarial drug policies and develop new antimalarial strategies. Resistance has arisen to all classes of antimalarial (chloroquine, amodiaquine, mefloquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine) except, as yet, definitively to the artemisinin derivatives. In order to prevent widespread resistance, the concept of antimalarial combination therapy (CT) has been employed and a global resistance surveillance system (World Antimalarial Resistance Networks) has been established. This book explores the use of these drugs in current health care.

This book presents an innovative assessment in the current and newer treatments of malaria therapy. Recently, a new class of antimalarial compounds has come to light which may assist in winning the battle with this ancient scourge. The artemisinins are antimalarials derived from the Chinese herb, Artemisia Annua. These compounds clear the parasites from the blood more rapidly than other antimalarial agents and have recently been recommended by the World Health Organisation as first line therapy in the fight against this age old killer. Intravenous formulations of artemisinins have been used in much of the world and represent an improvement in efficacy and safety for severe malaria. Much of this research data is used for the first time from databases at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. The comprehensive summary, accumulated wealth data, understanding views, and summaries will raise this book head and shoulders above any other of its type.