Discussion

Malaria morbidity and mortality are in steady decline. Preventive, diagnostic and curative actions have significantly changed the global scenario for this infectious disease. Is therefore the health emergency call for fighting malaria fading out? Surely not, as death and cases tolls are still incredibly high, while one third of the world population is at risk of infection. At the same time, the chemotherapeutic control of the disease is threatened by novel types of artemisinin resistance; the vector control, by limited funds and rising insecticide resistance; and the reliability of global data, by sub-clinical infections, diagnostic limitations and political/social instabilities. All things considered, now more than ever, we must raise awareness of the current risks and promote anti-malarial initiatives both in fields and laboratories. New chemotherapeutics are requested for strategic purposes, like transmission and relapse blockers. However, artemisnins’ efficacy, compromised by the rise of new resistant phenotypes, is gradually threatening our therapeutic approaches, one of the main pillars of malaria fight. In such fluid situation, is our research on new chemotherapeutics flexible and equipped enough? Are there new approaches that could be taken in consideration to move forward our understanding of chemicals interfering with Plasmodium and of Plasmodium targets?