At a landmark side event during the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA), Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) joined African Member States in supporting a united call to prevent, detect and respond to antimalarial drug resistance in Africa, which poses a significant risk to 15 years of progress in malaria control and elimination.
The event, led by the Government of Rwanda, brought together a powerful coalition of co-hosts, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, Namibia, South Sudan, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia. Supporting partners included the World Health Organization (WHO), MMV, the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). It marks a critical moment in the fight against antimalarial drug resistance.
Antimalarial drug resistance is rapidly gaining ground across the African continent, with evidence of partial resistance to artemisinin reported in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Currently, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) remain the WHO-recommended first-line treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria, with the most commonly used ACT, artemether-lumefantrine, used in 80-90% of all malaria cases across Africa.
