Word: artemisinin
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...least one of the medications is derived from a plant called Artemisia annua, or sweet wormwood, easily destroys drug-resistant malarial parasites in the bloodstream. Using several drugs at once, often in the same pill, greatly decreases the risk that the parasites will become resistant. As an added bonus, artemisinin, the active ingredient in Artemisia annua, acts very quickly, further decreasing the chances of drug resistance...
...full three-day course of treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapy costs from $1 to $10 a person, depending on whether it is purchased in the public or private sector. Unfortunately, that's at least 10 times the price of current, albeit ineffective, treatment programs. Most impoverished African governments simply cannot afford to foot the entire bill for combination therapy and the training required to give it, and the same holds true for the majority of their private citizens, many of whom already spend a third of their income on malaria treatment...
Although nearly every developed country and most major international aid organizations have said they are ready to help finance artemisinin-based treatment in Africa, that support has not always been forthcoming. Some health experts believe a report on artemisinin-containing therapy due out from the U.S. Institute of Medicine this week will dissolve any lingering reluctance...
...Malaria Symposium, held last week in Cambodia, announced that early clinical trials of the new drug Artekin eradicated malaria parasites in 95% to 100% of patients tested. And Artekin costs just $1.20 per dose, one-third the price of today's treatments. The drug is a combination of dihydro-artemisinin, borrowed from the traditional Chinese treatment of wormwood shrub, and piperaquine, a chemical related to chloroquine. Currently available only in China, Artekin could be fast-tracked for release in Cambodia and Vietnam as early as 2003. With over 1 million people dying of malaria each year, there's no time...