Drug resistance and containment

Efficacious antimalarial medicines are critical to malaria control, and continuous monitoring of their efficacy is needed to inform treatment policies in malaria-endemic countries, and to ensure early detection of, and response to, drug resistance. The emergence of P. falciparum resistance to artemisinin is an urgent public health concern, threatening the sustainability of the ongoing global effort to reduce the burden of malaria. In January 2011, WHO released the Global Plan for Artemisinin Resistance Containment (GPARC), calling on countries and global malaria partners to implement a five-pillar strategy to prevent and contain artemisinin resistance.