Prevalence of antimalarial drug resistance markers (dhps gene) for sulphadoxine pyrimethamine

Variants on the dhps gene are known to be a marker of resistance to the anti-malarial drug sulphadoxine, and a valuable indicator for the combination of alleles in dhfr and dhps that is highly correlated with resistance to the combination drug sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP).

This map visualizes the changing prevalence of the dhps540E mutation in sub-Saharan Africa. The approach allows us to predict space-time trends in parasitic resistance to SP, and provides probability distributions of resistance prevalence in places where no data are available. The maps also offer an insight into the spread of resistance in a way that the data gathered from individual locations does not allow.