Ebola Is Deadly But Malaria Steals More Lives

[longknife]

Well, gee whiz. Is this “news”? Of course not! But our Doctor-in-Chief has decided it's in the US' “best interests” to get involved in ebola.

Yet the World Health Organization’s most recent statistics on malaria suggest that every 30 seconds someone in Africa succumbs to the disease, which is transmitted through mosquito bites.


"In 2012, 90 percent of the world's malaria deaths occurred in Africa and about 460,000 African children died before their fifth birthdays," the WHO 2013 malaria report said.

As for malaria, it's carried by air borne insects that breed in swamps. All that is needed is an extensive surge of spraying these swamps with DDT to wipe them out.


Gasp! DDT? What a horrid thought. Using a banned substance that scientists say is not really responsible for all the horrors claimed to it.


Anyhow, read the article @ Ebola is deadly but malaria steals more lives Al Jazeera America

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Its an amazing fact that the animal that kills the most people is the lowly mosquito but its also true that ebola has the potential of killing millions around the world, including here in the US. However, its not as though the world is not deeply involved in fighting malaria.

We are capable of doing both.

As usual, President Obama is correct.

And, if he said we would not fight ebola, you would be here whining about that.

 

[longknife]

I have no problem with "fighting ebola".

What I DO have a problem with is sending US personnel to Africa to fight it. We contribute billions to the UN and its agencies along with sending billions more to support African nations.

If they can't or won't use that money to deal with what they describe as a possible pandemic, what makes you think this will solve anything?

Or even why we should?

 

[LAfrique]

While malaria is more challenging to control, it can however be controlled by keeping the environment clean and growing plants known to keep mosquitoes away. Ebola on the other hand is mutant from lab, just like AIDS and Swineflu -

I sure wish WHO and its allies would stop devastating societies with their sadistic ventures. Praying for all affected, and here advising all to observe proper hygiene.

 

[longknife]

Ebola can be stopped simply by not exchanging bodily fluids. Air borne diseases are a hundred times more difficult to control.

 

[jillian]

Well, gee whiz. Is this “news”? Of course not! But our Doctor-in-Chief has decided it's in the US' “best interests” to get involved in ebola.

Yet the World Health Organization’s most recent statistics on malaria suggest that every 30 seconds someone in Africa succumbs to the disease, which is transmitted through mosquito bites.


"In 2012, 90 percent of the world's malaria deaths occurred in Africa and about 460,000 African children died before their fifth birthdays," the WHO 2013 malaria report said.

As for malaria, it's carried by air borne insects that breed in swamps. All that is needed is an extensive surge of spraying these swamps with DDT to wipe them out.


Gasp! DDT? What a horrid thought. Using a banned substance that scientists say is not really responsible for all the horrors claimed to it.


Anyhow, read the article @ Ebola is deadly but malaria steals more lives Al Jazeera America

top causes of death:

WHO The top 10 causes of death

 

[waltky]

CRISPR topped this year's Breakthrough of the Year list...

Breakthrough Technology Has Power to Stop Malaria
January 02, 2016 | Gene-editing technology called CRISPR topped this year's Breakthrough of the Year list compiled by Science magazine.

Although the technique has been around for a few years, in 2015 researchers made CRISPR easier, faster and cheaper to use, heralding an era that holds great promise for fixing damaged genes or eliminating pests that carry disease. In a Science magazine podcast, Science deputy news editor Robert Coontz reported on several experiments using CRISPR, including its potential to alter genes in mosquitoes to stop malaria. "So you can change not just one organism at a time, but through its offspring you can make the changes spread to future generations and, eventually, if you do things just right, you can arrange things so that they will dominate the whole population," he said. "Or, in another malaria mosquito work, they made all the females infertile."

CRISPR has the power to revolutionize gene editing with spectacular achievements in 2015, including the potential to stop malaria.​

CRISPR may also be deployed to repair or replace mutated genes that cause disease, help save endangered species, or even bioengineer trees to ferment into biofuels. But over the year, the work has raised considerable debate over ethics that must be considered before the techniques can be applied outside the lab.

Ebola vaccine and Pluto pictures

In other health news, scientists discovered that the lymphatic system, which transports waste and immune cells in the body, extends to the brain. The new work could lead to devising therapies for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's. Also this year, yeast was engineered to make opioid painkillers. And, in the wake of the Ebola epidemic that took 11,000 lives in West Africa, a new vaccine to fight the virus proved effective in monkeys. In human clinical trials, it proved between 75 percent and 100 percent effective.

A journey to Pluto reveals a close-up view of mountains of water in frozen fields of nitrogen and methane.​

From the human body to outer space, Science magazine calls 2015 a big year for small worlds. In July, the New Horizons zeroed in on Pluto after a 9½-year, 5-billion kilometer journey. The high-resolution photos revealed huge mountains of water ice lodged in vast plains of frozen nitrogen and methane. Earlier in the year in a separate NASA mission, the spacecraft Dawn got a close-up look at Ceres, a dwarf planet located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. "It's really dark, but it has these bright spots that no one can really identify," Coontz says. "It is possible that there is an ocean down underneath, the way some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have. And where there are oceans, people say there could be life."

New human species

 

[Kat]

My dad lived from WW2 until 2000 with Malaria that he picked up overseas. Did not seem to affect him other than he could never give blood etc.

Having said that; I don't want either disease.

 

[waltky]

Nigeria to use new malaria test...

New Urine Test Offers Quick, Painless Check for Malaria
May 03, 2016 - The Nigerian government is encouraging use of a new home test kit to diagnose malaria, in hopes that citizens don't assume they have the disease and self-medicate every time they have a fever.

The simple urine test kit, containing five test strips, is available at a Nigerian pharmacy for $12. After urine is collected in the cup, the user dips a test stick in the sample and leaves it for 25 minutes. One line on the stick means the person doesn't have malaria. Two lines indicates infection from the mosquito-borne illness.

The test kit replaces painful blood tests. "I think that is revolutionary,” said shopper Ezzine Anyanwu, explaining that many of her family members “don't necessarily take care of themselves well, so whenever anything is wrong [they assume] it is malaria … and so they take medications."

Malaria is endemic in many countries, including Nigeria, and there are an estimated 425 million cases worldwide. The disease kills more than 400,000 people a year. Prompt diagnosis is considered key for successful treatment.

The urine test was developed by Fyodor BioTechnology, an American company, and underwent trials in Nigeria. "Malaria elimination in Nigeria is overdue,” said Victoria Enwenmadu of Fyodor Biotechnology. “A lot of countries have succeeded in eliminating malaria … and the Federal Ministry of Health is doing a lot of work to encourage proper care. So, I think what we bring to the table also adds value to malaria elimination. One aspect is to test before you treat." Fyodor BioTechnology hopes to make the test available throughout Africa and Asia.

New Urine Test Offers Quick, Painless Check for Malaria

 

[waltky]

Genetically Engineered Vaccine Prevents Malaria in Mice...

Genetically Engineered Vaccine Prevents Malaria in Mice, Findings Show
January 04, 2017 - A genetically engineered malaria vaccine has been shown to prevent the disease in mice, researchers say. The findings offer hope of halting the illness in humans, as well as stopping transmission of the mosquito-borne disease.

Researchers at the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Washington in Seattle, in conjunction with the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, have developed a vaccine that uses the entire malaria-causing parasite — called P. falciparum — to stimulate a protective immune response. Researchers weakened the malaria parasite by knocking out three genes that the organism needs in order to replicate in the human liver and re-emerge in the bloodstream to cause illness. "[Removing] these three genes make sure the parasite cannot develop to the next stage of infection, which occurs in the blood, which causes all of the disease and death associated with malaria," said CIDR’s Stefan Kappe, one of the main authors of the study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Normally, after the parasite infects the liver, it leaves the organ to infect red blood cells, where billions of disease-causing parasites are produced. In the study, researchers identified the three genes tucked within the parasite's enormous genome that allow it to enter the bloodstream. By knocking out those genes, says Kappe, the altered parasite remained confined to the liver and the immune system began churning out protective antibodies. "So, it infects the liver — that is asymptomatic so that's OK, and it doesn't cause any specific damage to the liver — but it stimulates your immune system [to fight],” Kappe said. “So, [the parasite] stops right there, and we call it 'check in, but it doesn't check out.'"

Mosquitoes live inside a stock cage in a mosquito laboratory in London​

In a Phase 1 clinical trial testing the vaccine's safety, the neutralized parasite was injected into 10 healthy human volunteers, where it stimulated a strong immune response without causing malaria. Investigators then injected mice with the vaccine containing genetically engineered parasites, and exposed those mice to whole parasites that had not been altered. The vaccine completely protected the animals from malaria, according to researchers. The most recent statistics by the World Health Organization show that an estimated 212 million people are infected with malaria every year, and some 429,000 — mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa — die of the disease.

Kappe said the experimental vaccine has the potential to prevent transmission, as well. "If you block the parasite in the liver,” he said, “you do not get disease, but you also don't get transmission of the parasite to the next person because the mosquito has to pick up parasite from the bloodstream. But if the parasite can never make it to the bloodstream, it cannot be transmitted to another person." Researchers are preparing to test the experimental vaccine in humans this year to see whether they, like the mice, are protected against malaria when exposed to the whole, unaltered parasite.

http://www.voanews.com/a/geneticall...nts-malaria-mice-research-shows/3663253.htmlp

See also:

Zimbabwe Battles New Typhoid Outbreak
January 04, 2017 — An outbreak of typhoid in Zimbabwe's capital has killed two people and is affecting dozens more, raising fears that the southern African country's water and sanitation problems are far from over.

Officials say that so far, 126 cases of typhoid have been confirmed in Harare since the start of the rainy season in Zimbabwe about two months ago. There are more than 1,000 other suspected cases nationwide. But Dr. Prosper Chonzi, who heads the Harare health department, said there was no need to panic. "What we are doing is to educate the public on awareness issues to do with typhoid — what it is, how it is spread, how to avoid getting it," Chonzi said. "We are also discouraging people from consuming food from undesignated premises." Harare city crews, he added, were clearing blocked sewer pipes in Mbare township and trying to ensure supplies of fresh water in affected areas.

Problems persist

However, a visit to those and other parts of Harare on Wednesday told a different story. Faucets were dry, sewer water could be seen flowing, and some people were using water from open sources like lakes and rivers. Itai Rusike, executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, said President Robert Mugabe's government did not learn much from the 2008-09 rainy season, when an outbreak of cholera killed more than 4,000 people in Zimbabwe. "The fundamental health issues that were supposed to have been attended to from the earlier crisis have not been attended to," Rusike said. "Authorities are taking advantage of the outdated Public Health Act that we are using, enacted in 1924. Public health trends have changed [since then]. This is why you find that it is easier for the city of Harare to pollute our water bodies and pay the fine, [a] very small fine."

Residents fetch water from unprotected sources in Harare, Zimbabwe, July 28, 2012. The country is now dealing with another outbreak of typhoid fever.​

The pollution he referred to is raw sewer water discharging into rivers, which some people rely on for daily use. Those using the contaminated river can easily contract waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera. Typhoid, an infectious bacterial fever, can be treated with antibiotics, but it still kills more than 220,000 people worldwide each year, according to an estimate from 2014 reported by the World Health Organization.

Zimbabwe Battles New Typhoid Outreak

 

[yiostheoy]

Genetically Engineered Vaccine Prevents Malaria in Mice...

Genetically Engineered Vaccine Prevents Malaria in Mice, Findings Show
January 04, 2017 - A genetically engineered malaria vaccine has been shown to prevent the disease in mice, researchers say. The findings offer hope of halting the illness in humans, as well as stopping transmission of the mosquito-borne disease.

Researchers at the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Washington in Seattle, in conjunction with the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, have developed a vaccine that uses the entire malaria-causing parasite — called P. falciparum — to stimulate a protective immune response. Researchers weakened the malaria parasite by knocking out three genes that the organism needs in order to replicate in the human liver and re-emerge in the bloodstream to cause illness. "[Removing] these three genes make sure the parasite cannot develop to the next stage of infection, which occurs in the blood, which causes all of the disease and death associated with malaria," said CIDR’s Stefan Kappe, one of the main authors of the study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Normally, after the parasite infects the liver, it leaves the organ to infect red blood cells, where billions of disease-causing parasites are produced. In the study, researchers identified the three genes tucked within the parasite's enormous genome that allow it to enter the bloodstream. By knocking out those genes, says Kappe, the altered parasite remained confined to the liver and the immune system began churning out protective antibodies. "So, it infects the liver — that is asymptomatic so that's OK, and it doesn't cause any specific damage to the liver — but it stimulates your immune system [to fight],” Kappe said. “So, [the parasite] stops right there, and we call it 'check in, but it doesn't check out.'"

Mosquitoes live inside a stock cage in a mosquito laboratory in London​

In a Phase 1 clinical trial testing the vaccine's safety, the neutralized parasite was injected into 10 healthy human volunteers, where it stimulated a strong immune response without causing malaria. Investigators then injected mice with the vaccine containing genetically engineered parasites, and exposed those mice to whole parasites that had not been altered. The vaccine completely protected the animals from malaria, according to researchers. The most recent statistics by the World Health Organization show that an estimated 212 million people are infected with malaria every year, and some 429,000 — mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa — die of the disease.

Kappe said the experimental vaccine has the potential to prevent transmission, as well. "If you block the parasite in the liver,” he said, “you do not get disease, but you also don't get transmission of the parasite to the next person because the mosquito has to pick up parasite from the bloodstream. But if the parasite can never make it to the bloodstream, it cannot be transmitted to another person." Researchers are preparing to test the experimental vaccine in humans this year to see whether they, like the mice, are protected against malaria when exposed to the whole, unaltered parasite.

http://www.voanews.com/a/geneticall...nts-malaria-mice-research-shows/3663253.htmlp

THIS is WHY you resurrected that old dead thread ???