Artemisinin is a strong antimalarial drug isolated from the Chinese anti-malarial traditional medicinal plant, Artemisia annua, commonly known as sweet wormwood. Artemisinin and its derivatives are the most powerful and efficient drugs ever discovered for the treatment of malaria.

Since 2000, artemisin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have become the first-line malaria treatment in the many African countries where drug-resistant strains of the disease have dramatically reduced the effectiveness of chloroquine and sulfadoxine / pyrimethane.

Tanzania is one of the countries where ACT (artemisinin in combination with artemether-lumefantrine) has had excellent results.  But many factors keep this treatment from reaching residents of the poor rural communities who need it most, including lack of health services in remote areas, distribution problems and cost.

Scientist Emanuel Makundi of NRMI will examine a range of issues related to ACTs – accessibility, affordability and drug use compliance – to discover the extent to which the new treatment has penetrated public and private health facilities at the community level and how access can be improved for poor people in rural areas.

Expected Outcomes

• Increased knowledge on who is actually using the new drugs; are the poor getting the drugs?
• Are there any barriers to get the drugs if we compare public to private facilities
• Improved access to new drugs especially for the poor in rural area
• One student trained at PhD Level (University of Dar es Salaam or Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences)