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Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

nytimes.com

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Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#31

Post by harshmap »

samirmenon wrote: post #24
nostromo wrote: post #22

Sometimes I feel that the western fascination with Malaria is a little misplaced. Actual Africans speak about Malaria like we speak about Influenza: a treatable illness that only kills the very old and very young. Actually Flu and Malaria kill roughly about the same number of people globally each year. Imagine if African billionaires showed up on our shores one day and started handing out respirators and face masks t…

According to the WHO, malaria kills almost 500,000 children under 5 each year globally, though the vast majority (~90%) of these deaths are in Africa. [1] In the US, 3,000-49,000 people die each year from the flu.[2] Clearly, the scales are not comparable. [1] http://www.who.int/malaria/media/world_malaria_report_2013/e... [2] http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm#deaths

"Influenza occurs globally with an annual attack rate estimated at 5%–10% in adults and 20%–30% in children. Illnesses can result in hospitalization and death mainly among high-risk groups (the very young, elderly or chronically ill). Worldwide, these annual epidemics are estimated to result in about 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness, and about 250 000 to 500 000 deaths."

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/

Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#32

Post by nn3 »

cmsmith wrote: post #18

It seems like there is an opportunity here for a mosquito net that won't work as a fishing net. Could a finer mesh be air-permeable enough but not water-permeable? Or a fabric which degrades in strength when saturated with water?

Or just dissolves itself when soaked for too long. I'm sure there are technical solutions to this.

Of course the problems first has to be acknowledged.

Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#33

Post by DanBC »

nostromo wrote: post #22

Sometimes I feel that the western fascination with Malaria is a little misplaced. Actual Africans speak about Malaria like we speak about Influenza: a treatable illness that only kills the very old and very young. Actually Flu and Malaria kill roughly about the same number of people globally each year. Imagine if African billionaires showed up on our shores one day and started handing out respirators and face masks t…

Flu kills about 250,000 to 500,000 people world wide each year.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/

Malaria kills about 650,000 people each year. The low estimate is 473,000 and the high estimate is 789,000

So, if by "roughly the same" you mean "more" then yes, they are roughly the same.

And people do take flu immunisation if they are in a vulnerable group.

Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#34

Post by baddox »

Ygg2 wrote: post #4
amelius wrote: post #2

Solution: besides giving out mosquito nets, also give out fishing nets...

That's a non solution. Giving them nets and fishing nets will only make then sell the fishing nets and using the mosquito nets for their fishing needs. One solution is to look for another solution. Like a genetically modified mosquito that is inhospitable to malaria and outcompetes regular mosquito. Other is to try stabilizing the region.

The people who are currently giving starving people mosquito nets, and expressing surprise that they use them to get food, probably shouldn't try to stabilize the region economically, politically, or, heaven forbid, militarily.

Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#35

Post by Mikeb85 »

smtddr wrote: post #23
nostromo wrote: post #22

Sometimes I feel that the western fascination with Malaria is a little misplaced. Actual Africans speak about Malaria like we speak about Influenza: a treatable illness that only kills the very old and very young. Actually Flu and Malaria kill roughly about the same number of people globally each year. Imagine if African billionaires showed up on our shores one day and started handing out respirators and face masks t…

As someone who is an American-born-Nigerian and my wife, born and raised in Nigeria, I can confirm this. My wife got malaria all the time in Nigeria, it was like a really bad cold or a flu in America. You get over it and move on. Only if your immune system is already compromised in some other way like old age or whatever malaria isn't really that big a deal among those who were strong and healthy before getting it. I…

Yeah, my brother in law got Malaria in another tropical country, like a bad flu, recovered pretty quick. Certainly not as scary as people make it out to be (unless you're already in bad shape).

One also has to remember the epidemic flu viruses that killed millions in the west in past centuries, yet now we barely care enough to get flu shots.

Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#36

Post by nostromo »

AaronFriel wrote: post #28
nostromo wrote: post #22

Sometimes I feel that the western fascination with Malaria is a little misplaced. Actual Africans speak about Malaria like we speak about Influenza: a treatable illness that only kills the very old and very young. Actually Flu and Malaria kill roughly about the same number of people globally each year. Imagine if African billionaires showed up on our shores one day and started handing out respirators and face masks t…

I think you're orders of magnitude off on your annual deaths[1]. It seems that most recorded influenza deaths are from pneumonia, and aside from the very rare and deadly influenza strains, far more people have died from malaria than any other disease in the 20th century - perhaps aside from only smallpox. Malaria is believed to kill on the order of a half million or more a year. There are other infectious diseases th…

It wouldn't surprise me if the CDC numbers aren't perfect. However, I was comparing both Flu and Malaria from WHO statistics.

Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#37

Post by baddox »

cmsmith wrote: post #18

It seems like there is an opportunity here for a mosquito net that won't work as a fishing net. Could a finer mesh be air-permeable enough but not water-permeable? Or a fabric which degrades in strength when saturated with water?

That's one way to look at it, I suppose, although what first occurred to me is that it seems like there is an opportunity here for purpose-built fishing nets, or another way to starving people to feed themselves.

Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#39

Post by rev_bird »

nostromo wrote: post #25
samirmenon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the WHO, malaria kills almost 500,000 children under 5 each year globally, though the vast majority (~90%) of these deaths are in Africa. [1] In the US, 3,000-49,000 people die each year from the flu.[2] Clearly, the scales are not comparable. [1] http://www.who.int/malaria/media/world_malaria_report_2013/e... [2] http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm#deaths

> globally vs. > in the US Speaking of incomparable scales...

Time to break out some napkin math:

627,000 malaria deaths * 90% in sub-Saharan Africa[1] = 564,000 malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

564,000 deaths / population of Africa (~815 million) = 69.2 African malaria deaths per 100,000 people.

--

About 32,743 U.S. flu deaths per year, recently.[2]

32,742 deaths / population of U.S. (~316 million) = 10.4 U.S. flu deaths per 100,000 people.

--

It looks like, by these numbers, that malaria in Africa is about 6.7 times as deadly as the flu in America.

[1] http://www.who.int/malaria/media/world_malaria_report_2013/e...

[2] http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/08/26/129456941/annual-...

Re: Meant to Keep Mosquitos Out, Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In

#40

Post by [deleted] »

nostromo wrote: post #25
samirmenon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the WHO, malaria kills almost 500,000 children under 5 each year globally, though the vast majority (~90%) of these deaths are in Africa. [1] In the US, 3,000-49,000 people die each year from the flu.[2] Clearly, the scales are not comparable. [1] http://www.who.int/malaria/media/world_malaria_report_2013/e... [2] http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/disease.htm#deaths

> globally vs. > in the US Speaking of incomparable scales...

[deleted]
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