Fever Pitch

When you're fighting in the jungle, malaria can be as deadly as artillery. So when China waged a brief war against Vietnam in 1979, Beijing issued its troops a crude anti-malarial pill based on a traditional Chinese medicine—and it worked. Today, hopes are high that a similar folk-remedy-derived treatment might help wipe out the disease. Scientists at the Mekong Malaria Symposium, held last week in Cambodia, announced that early clinical trials of the new drug Artekin eradicated malaria parasites in 95% to 100% of patients tested. And Artekin costs just $1.20 per dose, one-third the price of today's treatments. The drug is a combination of dihydro-artemisinin, borrowed from the traditional Chinese treatment of wormwood shrub, and piperaquine, a chemical related to chloroquine. Currently available only in China, Artekin could be fast-tracked for release in Cambodia and Vietnam as early as 2003. With over 1 million people dying of malaria each year, there's no time to lose.