Shoklo Malaria Research Unit is on the frontline of the battle against malaria in Southeast Asia. It was established in 1986 in the Shoklo refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit —
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit is on the frontline of the battle against malaria in Southeast Asia. It was established in 1986 in the Shoklo refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border.
courtesy Shoklo Malaria Research Unit
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit is now a region-wide network, centered around the Thai town of Mae Sot. There are other clinics in border settlements, each with trained personnel.
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit —
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit is now a region-wide network, centered around the Thai town of Mae Sot. There are other clinics in border settlements, each with trained personnel.
courtesy Shoklo Malaria Research Unit
Facilities are sophisticated, a marked improvement since its early days, when researchers working without electricity would use a mirror to angle sunlight into their microscopes.
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit —
Facilities are sophisticated, a marked improvement since its early days, when researchers working without electricity would use a mirror to angle sunlight into their microscopes.
courtesy Shoklo Malaria Research Unit
Medics in the area have relied on the drug artemisinin to treat malaria -- but now there are signs that malaria in the area is becoming resistant to the drug.
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit —
Medics in the area have relied on the drug artemisinin to treat malaria -- but now there are signs that malaria in the area is becoming resistant to the drug.
courtesy Shoklo Malaria Research Unit
Counterfeit drugs are common in the region and can contain ineffective doses of artemisinin, helping create resistance to it.
Drug resistance —
Counterfeit drugs are common in the region and can contain ineffective doses of artemisinin, helping create resistance to it.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Nick White, chairman of the Mahidol--Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, says bed nets may not be effective at preventing malaria in parts of Southeast Aisa:<br />"The mosquitoes here bite early in the evening. And who's getting malaria? Young men. Are they all tucked up in their bed nets by 6 o'clock? No. They're in the fields and forests."
Local knowledge —
Nick White, chairman of the Mahidol--Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, says bed nets may not be effective at preventing malaria in parts of Southeast Aisa:
"The mosquitoes here bite early in the evening. And who's getting malaria? Young men. Are they all tucked up in their bed nets by 6 o'clock? No. They're in the fields and forests."
TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/GettyImages