Travelers to Southeast Asia run the risk of contracting malaria, a miserable disease that is becoming resistant to available drugs. The anti-malaria drug Artemisinin is becoming less and less effective in treating the disease. This could be incredibly devastating to dozens of countries and millions of people.

As Bloomberg News reports: "Malaria is becoming resistant to the most powerful drugs available in Southeast Asia, as the World Health Organization races to stop the spread of the strain that could be 'disastrous' for global malaria control" (Simeon Bennett, "Malaria Strain Resists Drugs, May Threaten Millions, Study Says," July 30, 2009).

The same article continues: "Treatments derived from artemisinin, the basis of the most effective anti-malaria drugs, took almost twice as long to clear the parasites that cause the disease in patients in western Cambodia as in patients in northwestern Thailand, according to a study published ... in the [July 30, 2009] New England Journal of Medicine.

"The delay in parasite clearance times shows the drugs are losing their power against the disease in Cambodia, the study said. The failure of artemisinin-based treatments would be 'disastrous' for global efforts aimed at curbing the death and disease wrought by the malady."

Malaria strikes about 250 million people each year and kills more than 880,000, making it the third-deadliest infectious disease behind AIDS and tuberculosis.

Most people assume that medical science will shield us from potential epidemics. But the fact is, we are far more vulnerable than we suppose. Jesus Christ warned that in the end time, the human race would increasingly suffer from "pestilences"— plagues and infectious diseases (Matthew 24:7). (Source: Bloomberg News.)