LONDON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The World Health Organization was sharply criticized Friday in a report on rising malaria deaths in poor countries.
The article, appearing in the medical journal Lancet, says thousands of people in poor countries are dying needlessly of malaria because they are given outdated medicines that no longer work, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Scientists long have known two of the most affordable and widely used drugs -- chloroquine and one called SP -- are losing their effectiveness in many parts of the world because of resistance in the malaria parasite, reports said.
WHO began encouraging countries to buy the newer and far more effective medicine, known as artemisinin, in 2001, but most found it too expensive.
"This is negligence and medical malpractice. It's killing tens of thousands of children," says Amir Attaran, of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, one of a dozen authors from a wide range of nations who wrote the Lancet article.
