Also In Global Health News: Malaria In Cambodia; HIV And Human Trafficking; HIV In Vietnam, China; Male Rape In Congo

Malaria Cases, Deaths In Cambodia Increase
Cambodia has seen an increase in the number of malaria cases and deaths because of an early rainy season and delays in the distribution of mosquito nets - Duong Socheat, director of the National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control - said, the Phnom Penh Post reports. He said that during the first six months of 2009, 27,105 people in Cambodia contracted malaria, which includes 103 who died. In comparison, 25,033 contracted the disease during the same period last year and 65 died (Rith, 8/5).
Women To Address HIV, Trafficking, Violence
More than 20 women who have "endured trafficking, violence, exploitation and HIV" will speak on Thursday at the first "South East Asia Court of Women on HIV and Human Trafficking: from Vulnerability to free, Just and Safe Movement," which will be held in Bali, Indonesia, the Hindu reports. The article includes additional information about the event, sponsors and funding (8/5).
Viet Nam Invests $90M To Improve HIV/AIDS Prevention Centers
About $90 million will be put towards improving the construction and infrastructure of the nation's HIV/AIDS prevention centers in Viet Nam by 2015 under a project ratified by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Viet Nam News reports. An estimated $60 million will come from the state, $29.2 million from localities and the remainder "from official development assistant and financial support from abroad," the newspaper writes (8/4).
HIV/AIDS Project In China Reduces Discrimination Among Migrant Workers
A three-year HIV/AIDS educational project that reached out to 50 million migrant workers in China resulted in their becoming "less prone to discriminate against people infected with HIV/AIDS," according to a recent study, Agence France-Presse reports. According to the study, "Among the 250,000 workers who participated in 29 programmes in Guangdong province in the south, Yunnan in the southwest and Anhui in the east, 84 percent said they did not mind working with people living with HIV" - "a sharp increase from 40 percent in a survey of the workers conducted before the campaign started," the news service writes (8/4).
New York Times Examines Male Rape In Congo
The New York Times examines the rising number of male rape cases in the Congo, which the newspaper writes is "a consequence of joint Congo-Rwanda military operations against rebels that have uncapped an appalling level of violence against civilians." Though the male rape cases represent "just a fraction of those against women … for the men involved, aid workers say, it is even harder to bounce back," the newspaper writes. "Aid workers here say the humiliation is often so severe that male rape victims come forward only if they have urgent health problems, like stomach swelling or continuous bleeding," while others have died with no care (Gettleman, 8/4).
This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

Malaria: Artemisinin resistance continues developing in western Cambodia

Artemisinin, the "basis of the most effective" malaria treatment recommended by the WHO, took nearly twice as long to clear malaria parasites in patients in western Cambodia than it did in patients in northwestern Thailand, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study, which shows the "drugs are losing their power against the disease in Cambodia," Bloomberg reports (Bennett, 7/30).For the study, researchers at the Wellcome Trust-Mahidol University Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Program "compared the effects of artemisinin drugs in 40 malaria patients in western Cambodia and 40 patients in northwestern Thailand. On average, the patients in Thailand were clear of malaria parasites within 48 hours, compared to 84 hours for the Cambodian patients," according to HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report (7/29).
"We do not see 100 percent resistance, but the parasite is much less susceptible to artemisinin than we are used to. If used in combination with other drugs we can still cure malaria but it takes a few days longer," Arjen Dondorp, the leader of the study, said, the Telegraph reports (Leach, 7/30).
For decades, scientists have known that the area near Cambodia’s border with Thailand, "is a breeding ground for drug-resistant malaria," according to Nature News (Sanderson, 7/29). Chloroquine "started to fail there in the 1950s and 1960s, before becoming ineffective elsewhere, according to the study. The WHO ... is coordinating efforts to prevent artemisinin-resistant malaria from spreading to Africa, which has 90 percent of the world’s cases of the disease," Bloomberg writes (7/30). In an accompanying NEJM editorial, PATH's Carlos Campbell, who was not involved the study, writes "that the results leave no question that there is artemisinin resistance in western Cambodia," according to ScienceNow (Vogel, 7/29).
In a separate study published in the same issue of NEJM, scientists used "chloroquine to protect people while gradually exposing them to malaria parasites and letting immunity develop," according to the AP/Washington Post. "The results were astounding: Everyone in the vaccine group acquired immunity to malaria; everyone in a non-vaccinated comparison group did not, and developed malaria when exposed to the parasites later," the AP/Washington Post writes.
"The study was done in a lab at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and was funded by two foundations and a French government grant," according to the news service. While, a "vaccine that uses modified live parasites just entered human testing," this particular study "was only a small proof-of-principle test, and its approach is not practical on a large scale similar," according to AP/Washington Post (Marchione, 7/30).

Resistance to Malaria Drug Reported in Cambodia

Malaria parasites in western Cambodia have become resistant to artemisinin-based drugs, a development that could put millions of lives at risk, researchers say.
Artemisinin-based drugs are the first-line treatment for malaria, which kills more than a million people a year, mainly children and pregnant women. Artemisinin causes fewer side effects than other anti-malaria drugs and, until recently, malaria parasites had no resistance against it, according to information in a news release from The Wellcome Trust.
In a new study, researchers at the Wellcome Trust-Mahidol University Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Program, based in Bangkok, compared the effects of artemisinin drugs in 40 malaria patients in western Cambodia and 40 patients in northwestern Thailand. On average, the patients in Thailand were clear of malaria parasites within 48 hours, compared to 84 hours for the Cambodian patients.
"Our study suggests that malaria parasites in Cambodia are less susceptible to artemisinin than those in Thailand," lead author Dr. Arjen Dondorp said in the news release. "This means that it takes longer to kill the parasites. Artemisinin should clear the parasites at an early stage, preventing them further maturing and reproducing. When the drug's action is impaired, it becomes more difficult to eliminate the parasites from the body."
The study appears in the July 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
"Artemisinins are essential weapons in our war against malaria," study co-author Nick White said in the news release. "If they become ineffective, we have no immediate replacement. The consequences could be devastating. Elimination of malaria will not be possible and millions of lives could be lost."

Source: Yahoo News