You may have heard of the infectious disease known as “super malaria”. But do you know exactly how dangerous it is?
Super malaria infects approximately 212 million people each year and is a major killer of children. After first emerging in Cambodia, it spread through parts of Thailand and Laos, before arriving in southern Vietnam. Symptoms include high temperatures, sweats and chills, headaches, vomiting and muscle pain. Even more worrying, this dangerous form of malaria can’t be killed by the main anti-malaria drug. Spread by blood-sucking mosquitoes, there is a race to eliminate malaria before it becomes untreatable. And the danger of that is real.
”Around 700,000 people die each year from drug-resistant infections, including malaria. If nothing is done this could increase to millions of people every year by 2050”, says Michael Chew from the Wellcome Trust medical research charity.
By: Martha