Malaria: drug use and the immune response

Abstract

Malaria is a controllable disease, yet the resources required - human, technical and financial - are massive, and are currently beyond the vast majority of the 96 countries where the disease is endemic. The control measures most widely applied are vector control through spraying or use of insecticide-impregnated bednets, and chemotherapy. The biological problems to add to the resource issues are well known; increasing resistance of anopheline mosquitoes to the most widely used insecticides, and the progressive development of drug resistance in the parasite populations, especiallyPlasmodium falciparum.