Science / Medicine : A New Drug to Combat Malaria

Medical experts reported last week that travelers to countries where malaria is common should consider receiving the antimalarial drug mefloquine.

The drug chloroquine has long been used to prevent malaria, but malaria strains resistant to the drug have emerged in recent years, prompting the intensive search for new treatments. Mefloquine is shown in the recent study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., to be safe and effective against preventing some strains of malaria. But officials caution that the infection still is difficult to prevent. Besides taking prophylactic drugs, visitors to malarial countries can reduce their risk of infection by using bed netting, insect repellents and protective clothing.

Transmission of malaria was halted in the United States in the early 1950s, but it is still of major concern for the 7 million Americans who travel each year to countries with malaria.