Malaria treatments

Artemisinin, an antimalarial drug based on a Chinese herb called qinghao (sweet wormwood), is having a major impact on the treatment of malaria.

Every year, malaria kills over 2.5 million people across the world - most of them children under five.

Wellcome Trust-funded scientists in South-east Asia, led by Professor Nick White, developed and tested the drug in the 1990s and have used it to treat malaria in Vietnam and Thailand with huge success.

• Vietnam: In the early 1990s cases of malaria were running at 1.5 million a year with a mortality rate of 2500 per year. Using artemisinin, the death rate has dropped to around 100 per year.
• Thailand: There are 100 000 refugees camped on the Thai/Burmese border. Since introducing artemisinin in 1994, cases of malaria have fallen by 90 per cent.
• Artemisinin is now being used routinely in combination with other anti-malarial drugs, to delay the appearance of drug resistance. Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) has been recommended by the World Health Organization as the best strategy for treatment of malaria.

Visit our Malaria website