Methods for surveillance of antimalarial drug efficacy
November 2009
Overview
Resistance to antimalarial drugs is a major public health problem, which hinders the control of malaria. In order to combat the growing resistance, a surveillance system is needed, which will facilitate monitoring and containment. In 1996, WHO prepared a new protocol for assessing antimalarial drug efficacy in high transmission areas. Since then, it has regularly updated the therapeutic efficacy protocol for high transmission areas and validated the therapeutic efficacy protocol for low-to-moderate transmission areas on the basis of feedback from countries and scientific recommendations.
The most recent version of the efficacy test protocol was adopted in 2001 (WHO, 2003), but adjustments are required to incorporate the changes recommended by the Technical Expert Group on Malaria Chemotherapy, which met in 2005 and 2008 to discuss the Guidelines for the treatment of malaria (WHO, 2006a). The most recent changes are incorporated into this document.