Molecular Characterization of Plasmodium Falciparum Resistant Genes To Chloroquine and Sulphadioxine Pyrimethamine

ABSTRACT

Malaria has played an important role in the history of mankind because it is a constant threat to human health and it affects economic development and growth in areas highly affected by the disease. The disease is more lethal in children 0-5years, pregnant women and in people from non-malaria endemic areas. An estimated 247 million cases, nearly a million deaths, mostly in children less than five years old were attributed to malaria (WHO, 2008a). Nigeria accounts for a quarter of all malaria cases in the World Health Organization‟s (WHO) African Region and transmission occurs all-year round in the Southern States of the country (WHO, 2008a). In Nigeria, malaria is directly responsible for over one million deaths of children below school age and one quarter of an average family income is spent on the treatment of malaria (Etuk and Umoh, 2001).

Despite the attempts to eradicate malaria in Africa between 1955-1978, the disease resurged during the 1980s and 90s alongside with rapid spread of resistance to mainstay antimalarial medicines, for example, chloroquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (Bjorkman and Bhattarai 2005). However, the advent of a new millennium has been accompanied by increased awareness and expressed commitment by political leaders in Africa and by the international community to Roll Back Malaria. This has been clearly outlined in the Millennium Development Goals, the Abuja Declaration and in the Global Malaria Action Plan (WHO, 2003a; WHO, 2008b). This new era has coincided with access to powerful tools to control the disease, for example, efficacious combination treatment based on artemisinin-derivatives as well as improved vector control with long lasting insecticides treated nets and a revival of indoor residual spraying. Integrated, wide scale, high coverage interventions with these tools have recently shown