Scientist calls for mass malaria treatment

GUANGZHOU, China, June 6 (UPI) -- A Chinese medical researcher who has treated malaria since the 1960s said drugs used to fight the disease aren't being used to their full potential.

Li Guoqiao and his team of researchers from the Tropical Medicine Institute at the Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine say potent antimalarial drugs developed by Chinese scientists should be given as a mass treatment to the people of Moheli Island, a small African island where malaria is widespread, the International Herald Tribune reported Wednesday.

"We need to do more than control this disease," Li said. "My goal is to eliminate it because if you simply try and control it, as soon as you relax your efforts, it will get away again."

However, some Chinese scientists say the plan could cause the disease to more quickly adapt a resistance to drug artemisinin, which is considered the most effective treatment for the mosquito-borne illness.

"Using artemisinin the way Li wants to use it could increase the prospect of resistance," said Tu Youyou, a scientist who is credited with being the first to extract the drug from the sweet wormwood bush. "We went through all the trouble to invent this medicine so we should protect it. We should not abuse it."