Scaling up prevention and control interventions and implementing all of WHO’s recommendations require considerable financial resources, long-term political commitment, and strong cross-border cooperation. Governments of endemic countries also need to take targeted regulatory measures to remove oral artemisinin-based monotherapies from markets, along with antimalarials that do not meet international quality standards.

Endemic countries outside this region – and in particular in the WHO African Region, where malaria took an estimated 407 000 lives in 2016 – also need to identify additional resources to fully implement WHO recommendations to prevent the emergence of artemisinin resistance. One of the most urgent challenges is to strengthen pharmaceutical market regulation and remove oral artemisinin-based monotherapies from markets around the world once and for all. This Q&A was originally issued in April 2013 and was last updated in December 2017.