Sodiq Ojuroungbe Researchers from Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, and Senegal under the Emerging Genomics Selection and Antimalarial Tolerance project, on Tuesday, convened a regional meeting in Lagos to discuss the findings of their respective studies on how to combat antimalarial drug resistance in the West Africa region. This multi-country collaboration, funded by the European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, addresses the escalating issue of drug resistance in malaria parasites across West Africa, a region heavily burdened by the disease. Speaking with PUNCH Healthwise shortly after the meeting, the lead principal investigator for the EGSAT project, Professor Alfred Ngwa highlighted concerns about antimalarial drug resistance, noting that some malaria parasites have developed resistance to commonly used treatments.
Ngwa, a researcher with the Medical Research Council Unit in Gambia, explained that this resistance had led to a situation where patients may require multiple rounds of treatment to overcome the infection. While stressing that resistance to antimalarial drugs was a growing concern in Africa, the don stated that the EGSAT project was aimed at identifying the prevalence and distribution of resistant parasites across West Africa and assess their impact on public health. Ngwa added that the EGSAT project seeks to monitor and address these challenges by investigating the effectiveness of current treatments and exploring alternative therapeutic options.
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