171–180 of 289 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's more representative is "life years lost", and malaria wins there (we've lost many more years to it).
How do you calculate that in an area of the world with the highest rate of child mortality?
To me, it is invented, constructed, engineered, or created. What has been discovered?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the worst thing is: malaria is easily curable, as malaron is not only preventive, but fully kill the plasmodium in the liver cells. Despite that, we don't provide the drug to them. It would cost a fraction of what we spend on research for a vaccine, but no cigar. Of course, there is the argument that we risk developing resistant bugs. But the truth is, if suddenly all mosquitoes were moved magically to the US, yo…
Not sure why you were downvoted down much but here’s my 2 cents. I first started taking anti-malarial medicine as a child. My entire life I’ve been hearing of resistance to one drug and then another drug, and then another. Also, whenever we took chloroquine or any other drugs on a regular basis, we were well aware that having the medicine in our body would not prevent malaria—-we took it just to help reduce the sever…
The only solution then is rapid and large-scale intervention. Massive use of the most effective/least side-effect variety of drug for all at risk populations for 3(?) months, then bring in the alternatives and quickly and widely ensure their use in those areas where resistant strains still spread.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's bizarrely hard to find good explanations of this! The National Malaria Eradication Program, between 1947 and 1951, cut down on malaria transmission enough that the parasite was driven locally extinct. They drained wetlands where mosquitoes bred, sprayed house interiors and mosquito-heavy areas with DDT on a very large scale, and generally engineered a very specific ecological disaster, depriving the parasite of…
If this were the complete story then just a single person coming back to the USA infected would lead to mass infection... Clearly that hasn't happened.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Malaria used to be common in the US until the 1950s or so. It was eradicated through extensive mosquito control and engineering efforts. Rich countries can cope; it's the developing world that's thoroughly boned, at least until industrial capabilities catch up.
It used to be common in southern Europe as well and was an absolute scourge in SEA until the 20th century.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Malaria used to be common in the US until the 1950s or so. It was eradicated through extensive mosquito control and engineering efforts. Rich countries can cope; it's the developing world that's thoroughly boned, at least until industrial capabilities catch up.
I can't help being annoyed by how the West first exterminated malaria at home, and then , once they were safe, started worrying about the ecological consequences of doing the same in Africa.
It's interesting how everyone in this thread (rightly) views this as a promising development, yet whenever articles are posted discussing longevity research, you see ghastly comments like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26211722 Isn't that hypocritical?
Dying in itself is not an issue. Early mortality is an issue. Give everyone the chance to live a full life.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's bizarrely hard to find good explanations of this! The National Malaria Eradication Program, between 1947 and 1951, cut down on malaria transmission enough that the parasite was driven locally extinct. They drained wetlands where mosquitoes bred, sprayed house interiors and mosquito-heavy areas with DDT on a very large scale, and generally engineered a very specific ecological disaster, depriving the parasite of…
If this were the complete story then just a single person coming back to the USA infected would lead to mass infection... Clearly that hasn't happened.
I know here in Louisiana the local abatement program has trucks that spray synthetic pyrethroid chemicals (resmethrin, sumithrin and prallethrin) at night and uses an organophosphate (naled) from planes.
And residents are routinely urged to be aware of and eliminate standing water on their property.
We just don't use DDT anymore -- we almost wiped out our state bird with it.
Edit: I have to wonder how much housing changes also mattered. With modern air conditioning and well sealed homes it's fairly rare to have mosquitoes in the home at night.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Malaria used to be common in the US until the 1950s or so. It was eradicated through extensive mosquito control and engineering efforts. Rich countries can cope; it's the developing world that's thoroughly boned, at least until industrial capabilities catch up.
> Malaria used to be common in the US until the 1950s or so. I had no idea of that, as I suspect many given the time past if you wasn't around then. Did a little digging and nicely covered here: https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/index.html Which makes me wonder - what the cost of malaria drugs are and how much would it cost to eradicate it. Equally have the true environmental and ecological aspects of eradica…