[afro-nets] ACT NOW to get malaria treatment that works to Africa

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.za>]

ACT NOW to get malaria treatment that works to Africa
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Malaria Report by Médecins Sans Frontières: 
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign
 
Download report as Adobe PDF file (27 pp. 1.1 MB) at:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2003/act_now_report.pdf
 
On the advice of international experts, WHO recommends that Af-
rican countries facing resistance to classical antimalarials in-
troduce drug combinations containing artemisinin derivatives - 
artemisinin-based combination therapy, or ACT for short.
 
Artemisinin derivatives have attributes that make them espe-
cially effective: they are highly potent, fast-acting (parasite 
clearance is fast and people recover quickly), very well toler-
ated and complementary to other classes of treatment. 
 
Implementation of new malaria recommendations is a matter of 
life and death in Africa, where malaria kills between 1 and 2 
million people each year. Sickness and death from malaria ac-
count for 30-50% of hospital admissions and a yearly loss of 
US$12 billion on the African continent.