Artemisinin resistance and malaria vaccines

Episode 39

 With the confirmation that malaria parasites in Rwanda have developed resistance to artemisinin — a first-line drug used to treat malaria, which kills around 400,000 people a year worldwide — public health teams in Africa are asking what this could mean for the battle against malaria. Elsewhere on the continent, malaria vaccine trials have reported success.  

 This week on Africa Science Focus, reporter Charles Pensulo speaks to Karen Barnes from the University of Cape Town, who leads the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network’s Southern Africa Regional Centre, and malaria specialist Elizabeth Juma, a medical officer with the World Health Organization. 

 And, in this week’s Q&A segment, Wakin Octavia from Henry Henderson Institute in Malawi has a question about chemistry. 

Is there something you want to know about life, health or science in Africa? Send us your questions from anywhere in the world and we’ll find an expert to answer them — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

Africa Science Focus, with Selly Amutabi. 

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