Personal Health Solutions from NaturalNews Replace your toxic laundry detergent with natural laundry soap that grows on trees! (NEW source!) This top "underground" natural health newsletter brings you amazing new natural cures each month. Save $100! How to treat and cure over 100 health conditions using little-known health secrets How to halt type-2 diabetes with nutritional therapy - over 50% cure rate proven in studies End cravings with this guide to natural appetite suppressants (Download edition available.) How to blend nutritious meals in minutes with Adams' Superfood smoothie recipes (Delicious!) Breakthrough LED lighting technology prevents global warming, saves 90% on your lighting bill • Browse more health books... • Shop our eco-friendly products... All sales help fund naturalnews operations.

Li Guiqiao, a professor at the Tropical Medicine Institute at Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said he first used artemisinin on malaria patients when he was a village doctor in China's Yunnan province in 1974, at the government's request. Within hours, all 18 of his test patients felt better, and all recovered within a few days, Li said.

The leaves of the Artemisia annua -- sweet wormwood shrub -- have been used by Chinese herbalists as malaria medicine for more than 1,500 years, but in the late 1960s, scientists discovered its anti-malarial properties. Worldwide experts today believe artemisinin to be the most effective malaria drug.

However, after the WHO announced in 2001 that artemisinin should be used in combination with other drugs to slow drug resistance, the herbal shrub has been in short supply. Steep prices for the drug and a shortage of WHO-approved suppliers have led to the production of counterfeit artemisinin drugs, which have been implicated in a number of deaths.

"Fake drugs are all over the place and they are really creating problems in Asia," said Kevin Palmer, regional adviser for malaria in the Western Pacific at the WHO. "We are afraid they might get into Africa too as demand increases."

Though officials have begun spot-testing artemisinin drugs in the field, many counterfeits have reached the market.

"[Artemisinin drugs] are easy to fake," Palmer said. "Ninety-seven percent of fakes seized are just chalk. It's very worrying ... someone is making millions."

According to Wichai Satimai of the Public Health Ministry in Thailand -- where fake drugs are common -- counterfeit drugs aren't just a rip-off; they can also cause serious health consequences.

"Fake drugs cause complications and higher mortality," Wichai said. "If the drug is sub-standard -- say it has only 50 percent of the active ingredient -- it can't kill the whole protozoa (parasite). It will produce drug resistance."

With supplies already tight, the WHO has also only accredited two suppliers of official artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) -- Swiss drug firm Novartis AG and Guilin Pharmaceuticals Company, based in China's southwestern city of Guilin.

Developing countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa -- where 90 percent of the world's malaria deaths occur -- must purchase ACTs from those two suppliers in order to use money from the UN's Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Critics have called for China and Vietnam to grow more artemisinin to help supply world demand, and for the WHO to accredit more manufacturers of ACTs.

###

Related Articles

Additional Resources: Malaria traditional chinese medicine the WHO	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/021325.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/021325.html">Counterfeiting, short supply hamper powerful Chinese herbal malaria drug</a>
Receive our Natural Health Newsletter for FREE Subscribe now (it's free!) to win. We randomly choose a subscriber each month to send $100 in eco-home products or a RealGoods.com gift certificate (our choice). Plus, you'll receive FREE news, articles and action alerts from NaturalNews.com editors and join over 800,000 monthly readers who report extraordinary health improvements after becoming a subscriber! Receive breaking news alerts on natural health solutions, renewable energy, the environment, global warming and more. Receive a free instant download of our $29 Secret Sources guide that reveals top sources for little-known health and diet solutions.	Your Email Address: Free Subscription Code: Enter the numbers you see: 100% free of charge. Unsubscribe anytime. Absolutely no spam. We respect your email privacy.
Recommended Special Report: Seven Words that can Change the World by Joseph R. Simonetta Read this special report now... "Seven Words That Can Change the World reveals the astonishing, simple truths that have the power to forever transform our world for the better while freeing our minds from the enslavement of limiting beliefs. This is not a text for the simple-minded; it is a guiding philosophy for the mindful, intelligent few who are wise enough to seek out -- and recognize -- the higher simplicities of truly purposeful living." - Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, editor of NaturalNews.com	More on NaturalNews.com: • Streaming Health Ranger Videos • CounterThink Cartoons • FREE Special Reports • Podcasts