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MALARLIFE • NEWS Artemisinin Based MALARLIFE 20 November 2002 According to statistics, close to 3000 people (mostly children under 5 years) die daily from malaria worldwide. Malaria is mainly concentrated in tropical areas and since most of the population in these areas have a low income, there are no funds for research and development of a novel drug and even if a pharmaceutical company endeavoured to try, the cost to do so is so high that the price of the new drug will be unaffordable. This crisis called for a Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) and the inter global networking of scientists which lead to the third MIM Pan-African Malaria Conference in Arushia, Tanzania. It turned out to be the largest conference on malaria ever, attended by 950 scientists from all over the world. DFL was sponsored by the MIM to attend the conference with a poster presentation on DFLís artimisinin based Malarlife product. At the conference, artemisinin products were again highlighted by the WHO as the answer to drug-resistant malaria. Although artemisinin kills Plasmodium falciparum even faster than quinine, it has a very short half life and therefore the chance of developing resistance is small. Artemisinin cannot be manufactured synthetically due to its unique structure and therefore needs to be cultivated, extracted and formulated for commercial purposes. It is DFL’s vision to supply affordable effective medicine to the needy in Africa. For more information contact: malarlife@dfl.org.za © All Materials 2004 Doctors for Life International |
