Tanzania: Government opts for new malaria drug

Tanzania will in 2006 officially adopt a new combination therapy for the treatment of malaria to replace SP or sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine, a standard first line drug, which is now ineffective against the disease. "Studies conducted in malaria endemic countries by the [UN] World Health Organization [WHO] have established that the drug is no longer effective," Hussein Mwinyi, the assistant minister for health, said on Wednesday at a news conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital.