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

Re:Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective... by ses1984 on Thursday September 12, 2019 @08:01AM (#20950446)

I'm not suggesting that we don't address the giant disaster of millions dying from malaria. There is another solution right now: mass produce malaria drugs. How far down would that drive the death toll I wonder.

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Re:Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective... by BurningFrog on Thursday September 12, 2019 @11:15AM (#20952393)

I actually wonder that too.

My impression is that malaria was wiped out in the rich world by methods that we now deny to Africa, like DDT.

I also believe malaria is a human only disease, so if you cure all sick humans fast enough, the disease dies out, and you're left with mosquitos that only suck blood and are annoying.

I suspect the problem with malaria drugs is not producing them at a factory, but getting them reliably into all sick patients in places where there aren't even doctors or roads.

Anyway, you claim this is a real solution: Is anyone actually ready to do this for real? If not, it's not a real alternative to the gene drive.

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Re:Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective... by mullingitover on Thursday September 12, 2019 @01:39PM (#20954153)

"There are over 200 species of malaria. Humans are infected by five. But birds, bats, lizards and antelopes are also hosts for malaria parasites." [1]

So no, unfortunately, curing all the humans will not wipe out malaria. The only real solution is to drive the mosquito vector to extinction, everything else is a temporary half-measure.

[1] https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/ma...

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