ISLAMABAD, April 28: The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on the government to introduce a new medicine for malaria treatment, saying that the conventional medicines are no more effective against the disease.

Chloroquine has been the best known treatment for malaria for decades. It is an inexpensive medicine which has saved millions of lives.

In recent years, the WHO said, the malarial parasite had developed resistance to the drug in many countries. Resistance to a second-generation drug, Fansidar, is also spreading, the WHO cautioned.

The WHO, sources said, had recommended Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) for malaria. The ACTs are derived in part from a Chinese herb and kill the malarial parasite very fast, allowing the patient to recover quickly and with very few side effects.

The move comes as the number of child deaths due to malaria has begun to rise as a result of failing and poor-quality medicines, the WHO said.

Recent evidence indicates that because of the rising levels of resistance to conventional medicines, almost half the money spent on anti-malarial medicines is wasted on inappropriate treatment. This has highlighted the need for more prevention efforts through proven cost-effective measures like insecticide- treated bed nets.

In an effort to save thousands of children dying of the disease every year, the WHO has urged the governments worldwide to switch to a new type of treatment whenever there is evidence that the existing conventional medicines are no longer working.