1 Sep 2004

New malaria drug may help fight the disease in PNG

3:27 pm on 1 September 2004

Australian scientists have developed a synthetic drug that is set to become a major weapon in the fight against malaria.

The Post Courier newspaper in Papua New Guinea says the drug, nicknamed Oz, and developed by a team of scientists at Monash University in Melbourne, has been described as the biggest breakthrough in malaria treatment in a generation.

For PNG, the development of the drug could help fight what has become the second biggest killer of children there, after pneumonia.