British doctors have raised fresh concerns that drug-resistant forms of malaria may be emerging across Africa.

A key malaria treatment has failed to cure four patients who had become infected after travelling to Uganda, Angola and Liberia.

The four patients, who had all returned from trips to Africa, initially responded to a combination of drugs (artemether-lumefantrine) but the treatment failed and the disease returned a month later.

Analysis of the malaria parasite in these patients subsequently conducted at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine showed the parasites were starting to evolve resistance.

The patients were eventually treated with alternative drugs.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK