Fatal latitudes.

Malaria in the Gambia, Cambodia and Vietnam is becoming a drug-resistant disease, with cerebral malaria needing the most urgent action. In Asia the Thailand/Cambodia border is the epicentre of the disease. Thousands of Thai prospectors seeking precious stones in the border area return home with the malaria parasite in their blood. Self-medication then gives rise to drug resistant malaria. Dr. Nicholas White (University of Oxford) forecast disaster for these countries unless incentives are provided for research into new treatments. The best hope, meanwhile, seems to lie in an ancient chinese plant remedy for cerebral malaria. The film also looks at Thailand's battle against AIDS, begun too late to stem the epidemic. Funding for malaria treatment has fallen off in favour of research into an AIDS vaccine - although malaria is by far the greater killer.