Malaria

[omedetou_dana]

Malaria kills over a million people around the world each year. Children in Africa suffer the heaviest - they account for 75% of all global deaths from malaria. Every thirty seconds a child dies of the disease. Mothers are also at risk: in endemic areas, malaria is responsible directly or indirectly for 30% of maternal mortality.



Malaria is preventable

Despite some promising developments, an effective vaccine is still years away. But there are other ways of battling this killer. Sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets can save lives. Houses can be sprayed with insecticides. (How to buy the insecticides when in Africa a person lives with 1 $ /day ?)

[omedetou_dana]

if you want to help serch for : Medecins Sans Frontieres ( Doctors without borders ) ; they need volunteers .

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by omedetou_dana

Malaria is preventable

Despite some promising developments, an effective vaccine is still years away. But there are other ways of battling this killer. Sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets can save lives. Houses can be sprayed with insecticides. (How to buy the insecticides when in Africa a person lives with 1 $ /day ?)

In terms of mortality, I think it beats everything else in a lay-down mozaire.(sp?)

Can pesticides be grown?
I'm Quite happy to go to Africa with some seeds.
Much natural pyrethum is grown in Africa I am told.

Malaria can be reduced but I don't think prevented with DDT soaked mossie nets + the mossies quickly get immune to it.
You can't walk around all day in a net.
How come you need the pesticide as well as the net?
Wouldn't the net be sufficient?

A vaccine is in clinical trials here (Brisbane) at the moment.

[Michaelangelica]

Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise in Small Trial

THURSDAY, Jan. 24 (HealthDay News) -- A new malaria vaccine looked strong in a small trial conducted in Mali by a team of international researchers.
Latest Prevention & Wellness News
The vaccine -- designed to prevent the malaria parasite from entering blood cells -- was safe and provoked strong immune responses (up to a sixfold increase in vaccine-specific antibodies) in the 40 adults who received it, according to the 17-member research team, based at the Malaria Research and Training Center at the University of Bamako.

The volunteers were given three injections of full or half doses of the vaccine, with one month between each injection. The injections began in late December 2004, at the end of the malaria season in the rural town of Bandiagara in northeast Mali.

The study was published in the current issue of PLoS ONE.

This trial -- the first test of the vaccine in a malaria-endemic country -- was supported by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which also helps fund the Malaria Research and Training Center. The team is now conducting a trial of the vaccine in 400 Malian children, aged 1 to 6.

Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise in Small Trial - Disease Prevention and Wellness Information to Improve Your Health on MedicineNet.com

[Michaelangelica]

I have just been reading 1491
It seems there is an anti-parasitic immune system; and an anti-bacterial/virus system

Anti-parasite Drug May Provide New Way To Attack HIV

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2008) — A drug already used to treat parasitic infections, and once looked at for cancer, also attacks the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in a new and powerful way, according to new research.


Past research has established that HIV has "learned" to hide out in certain human cells where it is safe from the body's counterattack, cells that come to serve as viral reservoirs.
Operating from these havens, the virus slowly builds its numbers over more than a decade until it finally becomes capable of dismantling human immune defenses. In the end stages, this process leaves patients vulnerable to the opportunistic infections of AIDS.
The newly published work* expla. . . .

Anti-parasite Drug May Provide New Way To Attack HIV

Malaria Vaccine Trials Begin Using 'Chimpanzee Virus'

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2008) — Trials are underway for a new vaccine to combat the most deadly form of malaria. For the first time ever, researchers will use a virus found in chimpanzees to boost the efficacy of the vaccine.

Malaria Vaccine Trials Begin Using 'Chimpanzee Virus'

[Michaelangelica]

Quinine was first isolated from Peruvian Bark (aka: Chinchona, Quina) in 1820. It took until the early 1900's for it to really become a world-wide popular drug for malaria. It was a wonderful drug for a while. It cured malaria and took the danger out of this disease.

It really only lasted as a wonder drug for malaria for about 50 years. Malaria became quinine-resistant and quinine may not work at all today. The malaria germ adapted to quinine.

Today, it is more likely that you will be prescribed quinine if you have leg cramps. If you get malaria, they will probably look at other drug options.

The interesting thing about this is that Peruvian Bark works as good today as it did 1000 years ago. There are no strains of malaria resistant to Peruvian Bark, only to the isolated quinine.

The Side-Effect Challenge: Whole Plant Medicines Vs. Drug Counterparts
The latest drug treatment also comes from a Chinese Artemesia (Sweet Annie).
Could these be grown in malaria- prone areas?
A lot cheaper than Western drugs or Indian adulterated ones?

[mynah]

Seems that instead of drinking gin and tonic (which contains quinine), we should now down absinth...

Artemisia absinthium

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by mynah

Seems that instead of drinking gin and tonic (which contains quinine), we should now down absinth...

Artemisia absinthium

I think the Artemisa that is presently in use is the Chinese TCM Artemesia annua. Used in china for about 2,000 years.
Artemisia annua - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I think the one used in absinthe liqueur/liquor is Artemisia absinthium, and Artemisia pontica or Roman wormwood. I have grown both, I think. One is a tall 4-5 foot white woody shrub, the other more a crawling ground-cover. (Probably French 'grande' and 'petite' respectively). I never did have the courage to drink/eat any But these days I have a lot of digestive problems so it may be time for me to try it?!
Wiki

The simple maceration of wormwood in alcohol (as called for in absinthe kits) without distillation produces an extremely bitter drink because of the presence of the water-soluble absinthin, one of the most bitter substances known to man

Although absinthe was vilified, no evidence has shown it to be any more dangerous than ordinary liquor. Its psychoactive properties have been much exaggerated.

A revival of absinthe began in the 1990s, when countries in the European Union began to reauthorise its manufacture and sale. As of February 2008, nearly 200 brands of absinthe were being produced in a dozen countries, most notably France, Switzerland, Spain, and the Czech Republic.[4] A few brands are also being produced in the United States.

Absinthe can also contain many other herbs.
SEE
Absinthe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There seems to be some doggy stuff sold as absinthe. Does anyone have any recommendations for an authentic brand?
.

[mynah]

I've grown a few species, including southernwood, and they all have one thing in common: They're bloody bitter! (As is quinine, which cured me of the habit of swallowing tablets dry...)

I find the idea of killing the parasite by using a weedkiller or derivative quite intriguing. Apparently the stuff isn't too toxic if you don't have chloroplasts. The malaria parasite does not photosynthesize, but it does have a former chloroplast rechannelled into service as a feeding organ. (Fascinating critter, but one which, like Hannibal Lecter, you'd rather see on TV or the big screen.)

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by mynah

I find the idea of killing the parasite by using a weedkiller or derivative quite intriguing. Apparently the stuff isn't too toxic if you don't have chloroplasts. The malaria parasite does not photosynthesize, but it does have a former chloroplast rechannelled into service as a feeding organ. (Fascinating critter, but one which, like Hannibal Lecter, you'd rather see on TV or the big screen.)

LOL
Fascinating the parasite sounds like a real chimera.
So perhaps a combinations of weeds (wormwood) and weed-killer might just be what the doctor ordered?