The spread of artemisinin-resistant kelch13 mutants in Southeast Asia (in particular the prevalent C580Y strain) gives cause of concern in view of the possibility these strains may migrate to neighbouring regions, such as India, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). The recent discovery of three patients infected with C580Y parasites in PNG raises alarm bells, and important questions such as whether these are recently imported strains, or whether they have been circulating for a long time, and whether they have a common origin with strains in SE Asia. In the future, we wish to monitor this population to determine whether it becomes more prevalent due to selection.

Publications

• Increase in the proportion of Plasmodium falciparum with kelch13 C580Y mutation and decline in pfcrt and pfmdr1 mutant alleles in Papua New Guinea
  Yoshida N et al.
  Malaria Journal, 2021; 20 410
  10.1186/s12936-021-03933-6
• Emergence of artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum with kelch13 C580Y mutations on the island of New Guinea
  Miotto et al
  PLoS Pathogens, 2020; 16(12) e1009133
  10.1371/journal.ppat.1009133
• Lack of significant recovery of chloroquine sensitivity in Plasmodium falciparum parasites following discontinuance of chloroquine use in Papua New Guinea
  Sekihara M et al.
  Malaria Journal, 2018; 17 434
  10.1186/s12936-018-2585-x