Screening and Treating UN Peacekeepers to Prevent the Introduction of Artemisinin-Resistant Malaria into Africa

• The Haitian cholera epidemic provides a tragic demonstration of the potential for United Nations peacekeepers to introduce serious disease into vulnerable populations. • Resistance to artemisinin derivatives, now the global standard therapy for falciparum malaria, has emerged and is spreading in Southeast Asia. • UN peacekeeping troops from Southeast Asia are frequently deployed in sub-Saharan Africa. • These circumstances entail a high risk of introducing artemisinin resistance into the populations most affected by malaria, with potentially disastrous consequences for malaria treatment and control in sub-Saharan Africa. • The UN has a responsibility to prevent such an outcome; selective predeployment screening and treatment of UN peacekeeping troops is feasible and urgently needed.