"Super Malaria" Keeps Spreading

Overlooking Saigon River, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam 

The parasite has become resistant to almost all treatments

"The spread of this malaria "superbug" strain, resistant to the most effective drug we have, is alarming and has major implications for public health globally."

It is caused by a parasite that is spread by blood-sucking mosquitoes and is a major killer of children.

Fears are mounting about the spread of a new “superbug” strain of malaria. First identified in Cambodia, but since spreading to another four countries in the region.

To date, five countries in Southeast Asia have reported artemisinin-resistant malaria – Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar – but what is of more serious concern is that along the border between Cambodia and Thailand, in the Greater Mekong sub-region.

The fear now is that as the world is far more interconnected that it has ever been, the resistant form of the parasite will easily spread to other parts of the world, most notably the African continent.