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Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

theguardian.com

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Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#71

Post by mmsimanga »

dmix wrote: post #55
mmsimanga wrote: post #20

As a kid growing up in Malaria country I got yellow jaundice. Doctor told my dad that since I had had yellow jaundice I was "immune" to malaria. Its been 35 odd years since I have taken any malaria medication. Family members often get malaria once or so a year. A few years ago I decided to check to see if there were was any literature online with link between Malaria and jaundice. I couldn't find any papers online. N…

> Family members often get malaria once or so a year. Wow they must be some tough people. That's no joke.

Malaria is such a big part of life there that you can literally get medication over the counter. Mosquito nets are everywhere, shops have sizeable sections of mosquito repellent, windows have shutters with mosquito nets on the outside. People are supposed to take the malaria preventative pill but sometimes stocks run out and sometimes people are just people and stop taking the pills. As soon as someone doesn't feel well malaria is usually one of the suspects. Sometimes people just take a fall course of malaria treatment without even going to see a doctor. Then life moves on. There are some deaths, hard to quantify but it is usually the deadlier form of malaria that affects the brain and the sick person takes too long to see a doctor.

Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#72

Post by wolco »

mmsimanga wrote: post #20

As a kid growing up in Malaria country I got yellow jaundice. Doctor told my dad that since I had had yellow jaundice I was "immune" to malaria. Its been 35 odd years since I have taken any malaria medication. Family members often get malaria once or so a year. A few years ago I decided to check to see if there were was any literature online with link between Malaria and jaundice. I couldn't find any papers online. N…

Have you been tested for Gilbert's syndrome? They say it is a disease from natural selection from Malaria. All jaundice related conditions have a degree of protection against Malaria.

Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#73

Post by wolco »

mullingitover wrote: post #9
ChefboyOG wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of experiment is called a gene drive, and there's a huge debate in scientific communities right now around whether it's responsible or not to use them, particularly around the mosquito problem. A professor of mine who works in the field was discussing this with us last week. The idea with mosquitoes specifically is that we can wipe out specifically the mosquito populations that carry most diseases. The deba…

> This is just my interpretation, but it seems like there is a sensible portion of detractors who simply want to derisk the experiment as much as possible by collecting more and more data. This is so infuriating. Many people will die during this extended hemming and hawing. Humans have driven countless important species to extinction with no thought, but we have to vacillate over a species that is responsible for mor…

What makes you think they won't come back as bad or worse then before? That's what we did with antibiotics and we ended up with superbugs.

Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#75

Post by wolco »

maxerickson wrote: post #68
sszz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are legitimate concerns about efficacy (there’s research that suggests that evolution will help mosquitoes escape the gene drive effect, making it useful for only a short period of time) and about unknown ecological consequences (knocking out a primary food source in an ecosystem can have devastating health and economic consequences). That’s not to say it’s not worth it, but it is worth debating and figuring ou…

Which ecosystem are human-biting mosquitoes a primary food source in?

The unknown ecosystem changes are concerning.

A few years ago someone might say kill all bees kids are dying. We know better now.

Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#76

Post by eps »

mmsimanga wrote: post #70
ajoy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure this if of any use and I am nowhere near an expert on this field. But I found this article by doing a google search for "link malaria parasite hepatitis" : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3097216/ Hepatitis is a major cause of jaundice (jaundice is a symptom after all, of the underlying disease). So it could be that even if you are infected, the symptoms are less pronounced? Again, I am not…

Thank you for the link. I skimmed through it (not being a medical person myself). It is most definitely the closest formal confirmation of what I was told back then.

Unless you had newborn jaundice, which is unrelated to hepatitis and quite common.

Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#77

Post by wolco »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #10
ChefboyOG wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of experiment is called a gene drive, and there's a huge debate in scientific communities right now around whether it's responsible or not to use them, particularly around the mosquito problem. A professor of mine who works in the field was discussing this with us last week. The idea with mosquitoes specifically is that we can wipe out specifically the mosquito populations that carry most diseases. The deba…

>Then there are others who are in general opposed to this sort of interference in an animal population on ethical grounds. There are over 250,000 children under the age of 5 that die every year from malaria. In my ethical system, there is very little that can possibly justify trying to prevent something that will save the lives of 250,000 children a year. Anyone who actively tries to delay wiping out malaria causing…

Things that appear black/white seldom are.

Do you believe in evolution? The children who live are more likely to have anti-malaria related genes and so will there kids.

Would you save 250,000 children today just to condemned millions in the future as populations increase and more children as exposed and side effects are discovered.

I would probably save 250,000 kids today but tomorrow when millions more are at risk I will wish I thought longterm.

Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#78

Post by wolco »

BurningFrog wrote: post #66
NegativeK wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long-term, irreversible damages to entire species and ecosystems when perhaps a non-destructive solution is close? I don't feel like reductive arguments are useful for incredibly complex systems.

Letting 1000+ people a day die is a non-destructive solution?

You could be killing 100,000 people a day if things go differently than you expect.

Caution is in order.

Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#79

Post by mikorym »

mmsimanga wrote: post #20

As a kid growing up in Malaria country I got yellow jaundice. Doctor told my dad that since I had had yellow jaundice I was "immune" to malaria. Its been 35 odd years since I have taken any malaria medication. Family members often get malaria once or so a year. A few years ago I decided to check to see if there were was any literature online with link between Malaria and jaundice. I couldn't find any papers online. N…

I do think there is some truth in immunity (I grew up in Limpopo province) but there is also very localised variation in spread of malaria. The area where I am from is in the malaria area, but few people get malaria. My grandmother had malaria six times, but ever since Dr Annecke's time the area has seen few cases of malaria and you are more likely to get it in Kruger or Vhembe. So it could be that your family members live right in the centres of some of the localised malaria areas.

I've never had malaria and the general approach is 1) if you think you may have malaria keep on testing until it's positive. This is very important as you'll get multiple false negatives. 2) Taking medication is counter productive if you live in these areas permanently or visit frequently as doctors in Limpopo are probably the most clued up on malaria of any place in the world, should you get infected. (Commercial pilots, on the other hand, take very expensive and effective anti-malaria preventative medication.)

Re: Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

#80

Post by mmsimanga »

wolco wrote: post #72
mmsimanga wrote: post #20

As a kid growing up in Malaria country I got yellow jaundice. Doctor told my dad that since I had had yellow jaundice I was "immune" to malaria. Its been 35 odd years since I have taken any malaria medication. Family members often get malaria once or so a year. A few years ago I decided to check to see if there were was any literature online with link between Malaria and jaundice. I couldn't find any papers online. N…

Have you been tested for Gilbert's syndrome? They say it is a disease from natural selection from Malaria. All jaundice related conditions have a degree of protection against Malaria.

No never been tested for Gilbert's syndrome. I must confess I have never heard of it or anyone referring to it.

> All jaundice related conditions have a degree of protection against Malaria.

I guess this is the general advice I was given

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