Burden of Drug Resistance in vivax Malaria in India - A Brief Update

India contributes significantly to the global Plasmodium vivax burden. Treatment of malaria is more challenging than before owing to the rise of antimalarial drug resistance. The commonly used antimalarial drugs for treatment are chloroquine, antifolates like sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, and artemisinin-based derivatives. Antimalarial resistance is studied by in vitro and in vivo methods. Study on mutations in the drug targets in the parasite is a widely used tool to help foresee likely resistance and relate to the clinical picture. The majority of studies on antimalarial resistance from the Southeast Asian region come from countries like Thailand and Myanmar. Though therapeutic failure with these antimalarial agents has not been reported in India, there have been reports of reduced clinical efficacy in the presence of mutations in their molecular targets.