Globally, malaria kills over one million people and causes 300
to 500 million cases of acute illness each year. Malaria is the
leading killer of African children, accounting for about 20 per
cent of all-case mortality in children under the age of five.
Malaria is one of the major public health challenges eroding
human development in the poorest countries in the world. It
impairs intellectual development and educational attainment. It
places a very high burden on health systems. The disease costs
Africa more than $12 billion annually. It is believed that it
slows economic growth in African countries by 1.3 per cent per
year. In response to widespread resistance of Plasmodium
falciparum to monotherapy with conventional antimalarial
medicines such as chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, the
World Health Organization (WHO) now recommends combination
therapies as treatment policy for falciparum malaria in all
countries experiencing such resistance. Artemisinin-based
combination therapies (ACTs) are the most