WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Shin Young-Soo on Thursday said in a statement at least $450 million over the next three years is needed to close a funding gap for efforts to prevent and treat malaria, particularly the emergence of drug-resistant forms of the parasite, Agence France-Presse reports. “Resistance to the anti-malaria drug artemisinin has now been detected in Myanmar and Vietnam, the WHO said, five years after it warned that the drug was no longer effective in treating the disease on the Cambodia-Thailand border,” the news agency writes, adding, “Resistance to the drug may have been caused by the parasite’s long exposure to artemisinin therapies, as well as ‘substandard or counterfeit’ drugs in circulation, the WHO said.” AFP notes, “The warning came as senior health officials from East Asia and the Western Pacific met in Manila this week to coordinate support for international efforts to contain malaria and other diseases” (10/24).