Artemether in Severe Malaria — Still Too Many Deaths

Abstract

The impact of malaria is almost inconceivable to those who do not live in the tropics or subtropics. Each year, there are 300 million to 500 million new plasmodium infections and 1.5 million to 2.7 million deaths from malaria in the developing world. Since 1981 there have been an estimated 2.5 million deaths caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus worldwide, as compared with 20 million to 40 million deaths caused by malaria. Malaria is a major threat to travelers, and the U.S. military has had more casualties from malaria than from bullets in every campaign of the 20th . . .