Standard Malaria Treatment Effective, Even Amid Drug-Resistant Gene Variants

— Artesunate "still the best" first-line therapy for kids with severe malaria, researcher says

June 4, 2026

• 3 min read

WHO guidelines recommend combination courses of parenteral artesunate and parental quinine for severe malaria cases in "areas with established artemisinin resistance."Treatment with artesunate led to similar outcomes among children hospitalized with severe malaria whether they had Plasmodium falciparum genetic variants linked to artemisinin resistance or not in an observational study in Uganda.The findings show that artesunate is still the best first-line intravenous therapy for children with severe malaria, researchers said.

Standard treatment with intravenous artesunate led to similar outcomes among children hospitalized with severe malaria whether they had Plasmodium falciparum genetic variants linked to artemisinin resistance or not, according to an observational study in Uganda.