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Subscribe to RSSScientists are battling to stop a drug-resistant malaria that could threaten the lives of millions. "We worry that we are running out of time," one scientist says. NBC News' Ian Williams reports from northwestern Thailand.
MAE SOT, Thailand -- Clipboard in hand, Dr Francois Nosten worked his way down a ward of malaria patients. He stopped in front of five-year-old Ayemyint Than, who sat to attention and smiled. The smile told Nosten as much as his lines of graphs and figures.
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Ian Williams / NBC News
Ayemyint Than, 5, is being treated for malaria in northwestern Thailand.
"She's doing well," he said, moving to an older man, whose pale face and dull sunken eyes told a very different story. "Day five, and he's still positive?" he asked another of the doctors. "That's not very good. It means he was very slow to clear the parasite, no?"
To Nosten, it was further evidence of an alarming rise in resistance to artemisinin, currently the front-line drug in the treatment of malaria. He fears it could be the start of a global "nightmare" in which millions of people could lose their lives.
"We have to beat this resistance, win this race and eliminate the parasite before it’s too late. That's our challenge now," he said.
He said that artemisinin should take about 24 hours to deal with the parasite, but it was now taking three or four days in some cases. "We are going to see patients that don't respond to the treatment anymore,” he warned.
Nosten runs the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, which is part of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine at Thailand's Mahidol University.
The unit has a string of clinics on both sides of the Moi River, which marks the porous border between Thailand and Myanmar.
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Ian Williams / NBC News
Migrants cross the Moi River, marking the border between Myanmar and Thailand.
Nosten set up the first one in 1986, since when there has been a steady fall in the total number of cases of malaria, but most recently a worrying emergence of drug resistance.
He first sounded the alarm in research published earlier this year, following the emergence of similar drug resistance along the Thai-Cambodia border.
Full health coverage from NBC News
Nosten’s not sure whether the resistance he's found has spread from the Cambodia border or is home-grown. Either way, he's worried.
"It means that all the progress of the last 10 to 15 years will be lost," he warned. "Now the resistance is here, we worry that we are running out of time."
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Ian Williams / NBC News
Staff examine a baby who has been brought to the clinic with a fever, suspected to be malaria.
The malaria parasite -- carried by infected mosquitoes from person to person -- still kills an estimated 655,000 people a year.
That's almost 2,000 a day, mostly in Africa, with children being most at risk.
If the world loses its front-line drug, the impact could be devastating.
"The nightmare scenario is that the resistance will travel," Nosten said.
"We know what will happen in Africa when resistance is bad because we've been there before in the 1990s with chloroquine (another anti-malarial drug) … millions of deaths," he warned.
"We must prevent artemisinin resistance reaching Africa, but we also need to control it for the people in Asia - for their future."
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Ian Williams / NBC News
Dr Francois Nosten, right, consults staff as he meets malaria patients at a clinic near Mae Sot, Thailand.
Resistance to just about every major anti-malarial drug has started in the border regions that have been home to Nosten for more than 25 years.
Nobody knows exactly why, but poverty, conflict and large migrant and refugee populations constantly on the move all likely play a part. As do fake drugs or a failure to properly complete a course of treatment.
In the case of chloroquine, once the anti-malarial drug of choice, it took less than 20 years for resistance to spread from the borders of Thailand to Africa.
Study: Mosquitoes change habits to avoid anti-malaria nets
Nosten is worried that artemisinin resistance is growing much faster than he'd anticipated, with the drug failing initially to fully clear the parasite in more than half the cases he now sees.
"It initially goes after a few days, then it comes back. We see that more and more now," he said.
"In 2009, we still had 90 percent of patients cured. In 2010, it dropped to 60 to 70 percent. Now it's about 50 percent," he added.
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Ian Williams / NBC News
Migrants from Myanmar wait to be examined at a clinic on the Thai side of the border.
Some scientists claim this is too alarmist, since the parasite does eventually die, with longer treatment and higher drug doses, but Nosten sees no room for complacency.
"We have to respond quickly, not next year or three years' time. It's now or probably it will be too late," he said.
Artemisinin comes from a Chinese plant and is quick, potent and with no side effects. Little wonder it has been hailed as a wonder drug, the golden bullet in the global fight against malaria.
What makes the resistance so worrying is that there is no new drug ready to replace it.
Nosten said that although several drugs are in development, they could be five to 10 years away from deployment "if they make it … and we haven't got five to 10 years.”
The Shoklo Malaria Research Unit runs its own labs fashioned out of a sprawling old Thai house in the border town of Mae Sot, where teams of research scientists are working to better understand the parasite and the mosquitoes that carry it from person to person.
It is here that Chiara Andolina keeps mosquitoes that are literally hand-reared -- fed from her arm, which she extends through a mesh hole into a container of the hungry creatures every three days.
"Usually I feed around 600 of them in a cage like this," she said.
Of course these are not infected mosquitoes, though watching them settle on her arm for a good lunch is not a sight for the squeamish.
Read more international coverage from NBC News
In another room, Nosten settled over photographs showing the rapid development of the parasite once it has invaded a blood cell.
"If you can kill them very, very young -- like these -- they don't have time to develop into big fatty ones," he said, his pen jabbing at the photo. "These fatty ones are the ones that get stuck in your brain and kill you."
In other rooms, the DNA of parasites was being isolated and sequenced and drugs were being tested as part of Nosten and his team’s efforts to figure out what's behind the emerging resistance.
They are also looking for vulnerabilities and new ways to attack their enemy.
"It's hugely important to understand what's going on and contain it if we can," Nosten said. "We need to try things. We need to explore. It’s like exploring new territories in malaria."
Bazell: Malaria vaccine a half-effective, temporary protection
The French scientist has spent most of his working life in the tropics, initially with the medical humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières.
He believes he is engaged in a vital battle -- "a race against malaria" -- as he puts it.
After so many years on the malarial front lines, the battle has become deeply personal.
He dreams of completely eliminating this familiar but wily enemy.
However, he also knows that with the emergence of artemisinin resistance the stakes have never been higher.
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S.H.I.T.!
LOL! My thoughts exactly.
Unfortunately, there will be no new drug developed anytime soon for mass use. Big Pharma is not particularly interested in backwater countries where hardly anyone can pay enough to merit the effort. However, we may well see extremely expensive, specialized drugs that would be in demand by the wealthiest. When it's a life or death situation, sometimes Big Pharma can make up on price what they lose on volume.
There are other drugs and it is recommended that they be combined with artemisinin to avoid this problem. Some of the other drugs are also generics with no license fee. But like many things coming out of china they can make more profit selling a single ingredient drug and they like the fact that the end consumer must buy more because it does not cure as quickly. In this case it is not Big Pharma it is the greedy Chinese businessmen that are causing the problem in that part of the world. You likely cannot get a single ingredient artemisinin treatment in europe or the USA.
There was NO scientific basis for banning DDT, it was a political decision! There has never been one single death from DDT usage. There has been untold millions of disease-stricken deaths as a result of DDT banning! The EPA and environmentalists murdered those people as sure as they live. DDT saved lives World-Wide over 1 Billion people live malaria-free because of DDT! Americans lived without bed bugs and mite infestations in their homes. Recently the World Health Organization gave the use of DDT a clean bill of health. DDT is once again being used in epidemic areas. The United States under Bush paid 1.2 billion for indoor residual spraying with DDT! Malaria deaths were cut in half! DDT works!! There needs to be futher experimentation with DDT to work out proper dosages and safeguards! We need DDT for bed bugs in the U.S. NOW!
Agreed - however, if the margin of return for investors is preserved, and the CEO and board are able to retain adequate bonuses an stock options from the release of the drug, we might see some action.
Gotta keep our priorities straight, after all.
let's all blame companies making a profit. i remind you that your standard of living is completely tied to many successful and profitable companies making a profit and sometimes very large profits, it is the same greed and profits that you despise that keeps you whining for more stuff. how did you post your comment, on your computer, smart phone, e reader,tablet? where did you post at home,b which you own, steal the time from your profitable company or my bet is that you did it while driving down the road in your car on the way to do some shopping for more. no, it is not profits and greed that gets in the way it is dogooder regulations such as absolutely under any circumstances are we allowed to use ddt a chemical which could have cured this problem maybe completely 40 years ago,but, because it was over used we completely eliminated from use rather than figure out how to apply it to the benefit of humanity. how many more millions must die before common sense is allowed to rule?
Actually I think we're not blaming the companies making a profit - we are blaming the greed. It's well known that pharmaceutical companies only develop drugs that are profitable.
I think you missed the point and the sarcasm.
I guess we'll all just ignore that bed bugs are largely resistant to DDT????
"The well-established resistance of bed bugs to DDT and pyrethroids has created a need for different and newer chemical approaches to the extermination of bed bugs. In 2008 a study was conducted on bed bug resistance to a variety of both old and new insecticides, with the following results, listed in order from most- to least-effective: λ-cyhalothrin, bifenthrin, carbaryl, imidacloprid, fipronil, permethrin, diazinon, spinosyn, dichlorvos, chlorfenapyr,and DDT"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug_control_techniques
I agree with Caddishfly Completely. Do any of you live in a jungle or a hut where disease is rampant? No, so you should shut your PIE HOLES and stop telling other people how to live their lives. We, the USA had DDT that eradicated mosquitos with dieases and we Regulated it out of exsistence. Rachael Carson is the murderer of over 5 million Africans because she didn't take into effect the benefit DDT had on killing diease carrying Mosquitos. So I ask you was it worth it? Millions of children in 3rd world countries DEAD because our Government Regulated it out of exsistance. Now Thailand will go through the same treatment, so environmentalist can feel good about themselves.
Buffy-3025671, maybe you should know what your screaming about before blaming others. The US did not ban other countries from using DDT.
"Some uses of DDT continued under the public health exemption. For example, in June 1979, the California Department of Health Services was permitted to use DDT to suppress flea vectors of bubonic plague.[28] DDT also continued to be produced in the US for foreign markets until as late as 1985, when over 300 tons were exported"
"Today, about 3-4,000 tonnes each year are produced for vector control.[14] DDT is applied to the inside walls of homes to kill or repel mosquitoes. This intervention, called indoor residual spraying (IRS), greatly reduces environmental damage. It also reduces the incidence of DDT resistance.[32] For comparison, treating 40 hectares (99 acres) of cotton during a typical U.S. growing season requires the same amount of chemical as roughly 1,700 homes"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
release genetic altered ones who spread a gene in the types of mosquito's that spread diseases so they breed with the local population and spread the genetic characteristic that wipes out their ability to spread disease. Problem solved.... until it creates zombies of course :P
What's wrong with quinine? It worked for centuries and is found in nature. I know the drug companies don't like it because they can't patent it, but surely they can make enough off it to produce it and save lives. Even if they don't, since it's natural people can surely find a way to get enough to treat others who need it. As for third world countries, I agree that Big Pharma doesn't particularly care since they're all about money and not humanity, but malaria is moving northward due to global warming. The number of cases in the southern U.S. is rising dramatically. We may not have the resistant strain yet, but it's only a matter of time. The pharmaceutical companies would be wise to be prepared, since Americans will pay for the medicine.
I still think quinine is the better solution, though, since it can be produced cheaply.
Prevention is probably still the best way to prevent large outbreaks of the disease.
Big thanks to Rachel Carson for getting the best substance for killing the mosquitos banned.
How many millions would have been saved because of her ignorant crusade.
Liars - unfortunately DDT also was fantastic for disrupting many other organisms. Had we continued to use it the web of life on this planet would be vastly different than it is today. Top of the food chain predators would probably be mostly extinct. Since we are at the top of our food chain or web most of us would be carrying DDT in our tissues and suffering ill effects from it.
Do you really think we can sterilize the planet and still live on it?
@LiarsInPolitics=duh
I'm having a hard time determining if you are serious or just being sarcastic about Rachel Carson and DDT. I mean, it's not like there was all this evidence that proved it was thinning the egg shells of birds, leading to decreases in their population and the near extinction of the bald eagle. You can't just remove a species from an ecosystem and expect there to be no repercussions. An example would be hunting season for deer: their populations get out of hand because we've removed all their natural predators, so obviously we have to remove a few or else they overgraze, etc. And honestly, trying to predict how ecosystems would be affected by the removal of birds is not exactly easy.
The hard truth is that no matter what humanity does to cure/eradicate diseases, there will either be those that evolve and become resistant or new ones that haven't been seen before. Despite best efforts, you can't save everyone. Even if that were possible it would only lead to more human overpopulation and resource strain.
And by the way, DDT is banned worldwide for agricultural use, but has limited (and controversial) use in disease vector control.
THERE WAS NO SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR BANNING DDT, IT WAS ALL A POLITICAL DECISION! There needs to be futher experimentation with DDT to work out dosages and safeguards! Homes are being infested now with bed bugs and mites we need the use of DDT! To many people have died as a result of DDT banning.
There actually is a large amount of scientific data demonstrating the toxicity of DDT. Yes, politics entered into the decision. Yes, an outright ban was maybe an over-reaction. But truth is, DDT is persistent in the environment and does build in fatty tissues of animals of all types.
The biggest problem was the indiscriminate use of it everywhere. But to say that there was no scientific basis for the ban is wrong.
jesus christ, the minute they stopped using DDT they started using other pesticides. The whole "Banning DDT killed millions" is made up tripe. You know why it's made up? Because it makes enviormentalists look bad. And if we make enviormentalists look bad, we can make their policies look bad. And if we can make their policies look bad, we can keep destroying the environment in the name of profit.
That lie is also a boon to liberal hating conservatives, since most liberals support environmentalism. By extension they are all 'murderers' for supporting the ban of DDT. Evil evil liberals indeed.
And in America we stopped using DDT in part because it stopped working, like with any pesticide, mosquitoes develop resistance. There is no such thing as a magic bullet against mosquitoes!
Cirnobyl, Actually the ban came because it was shown to be destroying the reproduction process of top tier avian carnivores that ate the small birds that ate the DDT laced mosquitos.
"Once a common sight in much of the continent, the Bald Eagle was severely affected in the mid-20th century by a variety of factors, among them the thinning of egg shells attributed to use of the pesticide DDT"
"It is estimated that in the early 18th century, the Bald Eagle population was 300,000–500,000,[50] but by the 1950s there were only 412 nesting pairs in the 48 contiguous states of the US"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Eagle
Can't let your national symbol go extinct!
DDT was becoming ineffective against the mosquito and the side effects made it 'not cost effective'. This was the underlying reason. A US Ban does little against using a chemical in other countries...
The main thing the eco-people are not telling you...
Their wind powered generators - besides causing many raptor deaths also KILL the most effective insect controllers - BATS & Birds. There have been many documented cases where the proliferation of these generators has also resulted in a INCREASE of insect or 'vector-borne disease's'...
Criterion Wind Project (Maryland) conducted daily monitoring of a for bat and bird mortality between April 5 and November 15, 2011. Criterion estimates that the project killed approximately 1,093 bats (39.03 bats per turbine) and 448 birds (16.01 birds per turbine). This rate is described in the draft Environmental Assessment as the highest per-turbine bird mortality ever estimated at a studied wind project in the United States, and as the highest per-turbine bird mortality ever documented in North America... see http://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/EndSppWeb/Criterion%20docs/Draft%20Criterion%20Wind%20Environmental%20Assessment.pdf
In 1908 there were 72 wind turbines in the USA, now they generate 3.3% (133 terawatt-hours) of all generated electrical energy.[3] U.S. average turbine size was 1.97 MW or over 66+million operating turbines in 2010. Construction of new wind power generation capacity in the first three quarters of 2012 totaled 4,728 megawatts...
In 2010, the wind power industry in the US received 42% ($4.986 billion) of all federal subsidies for electricity generation.[10]
"If we really cared about malaria, west nile or Dengue fever, this would be taken care of by now, the money would be there. Instead we build wind turbines and then say we have no money to fight these dieases. Wind turbines and solar power aren’t for saving the planet, they are merley expensive symbols of the left. When people see them, they gat a warm fuzzy feeling and can feel good about themselves. They don’t care about vector-borne diseases." see http://chimalaya.org/2011/11/23/climate-change-may-make-insect-born-diseases-harder-to-control/
There is no such thing as a free ride. Wind turbines kill birds & bats locally; nuclear energy leaves long lasting radioactive waste; fossil fuels emit tons of greenhouse gases and other, oftentimes worse pollutants; hydro completely disrupts aquatic ecosystems. Pick your poison, I guess. For me, the local disruption of some birds and bats are less evil than the long-term wastes of nuclear or the global effects of fossil fuels. But I do believe that the solution is not to rely too much on any one of these energy sources. Diversification is the key.
More media fear-mongering. Bird flu, mad cow disease, swine flu and many other media invented doomsday ills were suppose to kill half of the population. If they didn't sensationalize these, it wouldn't be news-worthy.
here we go again. Y2k, 2012, among a bunch of other crap and this will be the next thing to ride the panic wave on.
macman01- It's NOT media invented you obsequious buffoon! There are areas of epidemic malaria transmission throughout Africa and World Wide! I CAN'T STAND SELF CENTERED PEOPLE LIKE YOU! There have been untold millions die as a result of DDT banning alone.
Take a deep breath, Jazzy. Get a grip and quit making a fool of yourself.
Like DDT?
Since the drug is coming from China maybe the drug should be checked out 1st, what with the lack of gov't oversite.
The last true pandemic we had was the Spanish flu during WWI that took out 20million. In 1910, the world population was about 2billion. We now stand at 7billion.... Plague, war and famine are mother nature's way of controlling human population since human beings are incapable of it. Our members who are least able to rear future generations are the ones who spawn in the greatest numbers.... We may not be able to feed them, but we can sure make them...
Nothing will be done in the way of research to find a new effective medicine to treat it, because it mainly infects and kills darker-skinned, poor people in continents far away, and has little profit potential. That will continue to be the case until it starts killing rich white Europeans and Americans, who would be more than willing and able to fork over the huge sums of money they will demand for a drug that probably costs pennies to produce. All of a sudden, it will then be perceived as a global threat, and governments will spur pharmaceutical companies to research for a cure by granting them huge sums of taxpayer money, with no oversight, to start research to develop and produce an new drug, which will probably end up being a slight molecular modification of an old drug. Then they will claim they had to spend bazillions to create this new miracle wonder drug, and charge prices that will make the latest cancer treatment costs look like aspirin in comparison.
Are you saying that darker-skinned people are unable to help themselves. That's kinda racist, isn't it?
Mymomdidnotraiseafool,
DDT was a perfect tool that saved millions of darker-skinned poor people. Too bad the White Liberal/Progressive Wack Jobs are so racist that they believe overpopulation of these darker-skinned poor people will cramp their lifestyles and pressured the EPA to ban it without any scientific proof that it is dangerous to the environment. It makes sense too. They do the same thing here in the states with free on-demand abortions for the poor darker-skinned people.
Not only that, but too bad that these White Liberal/Progressive Wack Jobs believe in evolution and understand that DDT is no longer effective because mosquitoes have evolved to be resistant to it.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Mosquito_resistance
Now if only they would stop believing in evolution, all of the world's problems could be fixed.
rightwingscrewball,
And he's using Wikipedia to prove his point.
In America, the smart money goes into women's breasts. That kills tens of thousands. Malaria kills hundreds of millions.
denver bill 2
It has nothing to do with racism. It has to do with reality and profit margins. Also, if the 3rd world countries who produce the majority of the "darker-skinned" people were able to help themselves, they wouldn't be looking to us to solve their problems for them.
And...for those who aren't worried about the environmental impact of using DDT over there... (that is the key phrase.."over there"...) why don't we just load them up on agent orange and carpet bomb the remaining rain forests with napalm? That will solve the mosquito problem but won't do much to preseve what little usable land there is left.
I'm sorry. I know it sounds cold, but no... We can't and shouldn't "save" everyone. And it isn't only because of profit margins
Billy-boy just likes to twist words around to meet his agenda. That's because he has a twisted mind. I dare him to name one major pharmaceutical research center in sub-Saharan Africa. And I am not talking about the ones that do Stage 1 and 2 clinical trials for drugs developed outside Africa. One day, probably in the not-too-distant future, someone is going to come out of Africa and into the United States, or Europe, or Japan, or any highly developed industrial country, with a mutant version of Ebola or some of the equally horrifying diseases that are endemic there, but this time it will be communicable by casual touch, or air droplets, or some other method that does not involve close contact with large quantities of bodily fluids. All of a sudden, you'll see the equivalent of the pharmaceutical Manhattan project started, albeit not guaranteed the same type of result. There was nothing racist intended or implied in my statement, but he just had to jump on it with both feet, without engaging his feeble mind.
The banning of DDT was led by wealthy, trust-funded, Ivy League-educated whites. That is the only racist part of the whole situation.
Lisa from Hueyland, I take it there aren't too many Christians where you come from with your "F#&* it, let them all die as long as I'm safe attitude."
Congratulations, you win the self righteous, I'm better than you so you die award. You must be so proud.
INCREASING numbers of malaria, west nile and Dengue fever infections in the USA...
1. "We're in the midst of one of the largest West Nile outbreaks ever seen in the United States," saidDr. Lyle Petersen, the director of the CDC's Vector-Borne Infectious Disease Division official.
The CDC says that people have been infected with West Nile Virus in 38 states this year. At 1100 cases, it's three times as many as usual...
2. The mosquito-borne dengue fever, which is endemic in much of the tropics, has been reported in south Texas, as well as the Florida Keys. Reported by the CDC during Aug 2012...
3. Malaria infection rates tied to:
a. Poverty and little access to health services...
b. HIV, Malaria and TB co-infections work synergistically, with the result of increasing prevalence and intensity of both. ALL of these infections are experiencing INCREASED rates of infection in the USA...
c. When insecticide-treated nets are used properly by three-quarters of the people in a community, malaria transmission is cut by 50%, child deaths are cut by 20%, and the mosquito population drops by as much as 90%...
d. Over half a million (655, 000) people die from malaria each year, mostly children younger than five years old...
These diseases are not an area specific or black/brown-skinned peoples problem...
Stop all travel to and from the area.
Begin a world-wide war on mosquitoes.
Breed malaria resistant mosquitoes to replace the others.
In life, some will always die; there are no guarantees except oppressive federal taxes.
Why aren't individuals like Dr. Nosten the heroes in our society instead of phonies and pretenders such as Tom Brady or Kanye West. Human society is really bankrupt.
Good question.
Heck, Kanye and Kardashian's baby is probably going to be BORN resistant to malaria.
Among other things.
John N, we live in a society that idolizes the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. We Idolize & make Godesses out of the scumbag Kadashian skanks while denying the existance of Jesus Christ and going as far as calling him a sky fairy. What would you expect out of a sick society like ours.
Get use to it!
Once the fracking waste poisons pollute the waters of Earth, mosquitoes will die on contact with it so if we can only hold out til then we'll be safe from Malaria. Downside: we'll all be so sick from the same poison that Malaria will seem like a walk in the park. Hey, nothing's perfect.
Republicans: your boys Bush & Cheney, got Big Industry EXEMPT FROM THE SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT! Did you think you could push a song and dance man into the white house in the wake of that??? No: the people retain a bit of common sense. But sadly not strong enough (yet) to ward off the poisoning of the dear waters of this land: that is the expensive price tag of CHEAP NATURAL GAS. All else said about this is lies founded in denial, greed and hatred of Life.
E.D., I am so glad your man, Obama, is reversing all the Bush decisions. Well, except for the Bush-era tax cuts. And the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Guantanamo. And the appointment of czars who are outside of governmental confirmation. And Fast & Furious (except that Holder actually got rid of the one part of the program that WAS working). And... well, the genius list could go on and on.
We actually have the technological tools right now with which to totally decimate the mosquitoes and flies which transmit these deadly diseases. We need to put together a coordinated international effort to do this RIGHT NOW!
(It is actually far cheaper to SAFELY get rid of these transmission insects than it is to treat the diseases they spread, so this approach will be more than cost effective, although it will still take several years to implement.)
(I am thinking of sterile insect technique combined with genetic modification of these insects. The rich countries cannot afford to ignore these plagues in poorer second and third world countries, because it is only a matter of a short period of time before the next global pandemic emerges from these countries if they try to.)
Once we finally get these insect populations down, it is very easy and inexpensive to keep them down with low cost programs of the same type of control after that.
(We can also safely administer pesticides without harming the environment by creating dummies which these biting insects can bite instead of people.)
(Previously banned pesticides like DDT can safely be used once again without harming the environment by using dummies which these insects land on and bite instead of people to administer these dangerous pesticides!)
(We also need to boost dragonfly populations as well, if only in those areas where pesticides are not being used. Perhaps future genetic modifications to these transmission insects can even make it easier for dragonflies to catch and kill these transmission insects.)
Except for this crazy notion called ecology. Mosquitoes are a huge part of the food chain and important, deadly or not. If you want to try and kill off every pest and parasite on the planet go nuts. You'll be broke without even making a dent.
It's not a good idea to eradicate an entire species, let alone two, unless you want to create bigger problems than you were trying to solve. I won't go into a ton of details as I am sure you will call me nothing but a worthless tree hugger, but while considered pests to humans, these insects play a vital role in the environment. If wiped out completely, the end result would leak down the chain and effect humans negatively (since humans seem to be all you are worried about) in a big way.
Just a couple of examples, flies are in a category known as saprophytes, and these are organisms that aid in decomposition of dead organic material. This decomposition, in turn, creates top soil for plants to grow in. I shouldn't have to say why this is important. Mosquitoes provide food for many species and they also play a role in pollination of certain plants that provide cover for other animals and create oxygen through photosynthesis. They don't live completely off of human blood. The sole staple of their diet is nectar. It's only the females that feast on human blood, and it's usually only when they're about to lay their eggs.
People need to quit trying to screw with mother nature because in the end we create more problems than we started with. With the overpopulation problem that we have on this planet, disease is bound to spread and thin the population out a bit. It sounds harsh, but that's the way nature works.
Amen to that! You could wipe out half of the human population and the majority of those left would only notice how much better their living conditions were with less competition for the same limited resources. Wipe out important insect species and you get a domino effect up and down the food chain which will, without doubt, effect humanity.
I love that everyone on the Vine has the definitive answer.
7 Billion walking, breathing viral and parasitic evolutionary petri dishes - it is only a matter of time until the great pandemic occurs.
It is life - accept it.
None of us leave here alive.
It's not a drug, but DDT could be a huge help.
Not since mosquitoes evolved resistance to it.
mother nature's way of thinning the herd tragic, painful but human population is overwhelming the planet and when any species gets too large mother nature fixes the problem In my lifetime of 68 yrs human population has doubled, that kind of increase is off the charts and something has to give.
How could you have lived 68 years without learning what a sentence or punctuation is?
My thoughts exactly, "god." After 68 years, he hasn't realized that sounding illiterate undermines one's credibility.
Maybe you two "brainiacs" should consider what he has lived through.
Could you not understand the content of his post, or did you just need that feeling of "mental superiority" to get you through your day?
Well said Steve Sjurset. Some people really think they are superior to others, especially in this country.
God and In Shanghai, pick on someone your own age morons.
very similiar to our debt growth and something has to give there as well.
With unrestrained human overbreeding laying the planetary ecological systems that sustain all life to waste, this sounds more like very good news indeed than like a nightmare.
Score one for mother nature.
It's time for you to die so someone more worthwhile can take your place.
Sounds like you're parapharasing Ebinezer Scrooge..."If they are to die, then best they do it, and decrease the surplus population!" Why don't you start by putting a gun in your mouth.
rightwing idiot, this has nothing to do with Obama or American Politics moron. This has to do with a decease that is starting to get immune to the drug used to treat it. It also has a potential to kill thousands if not millions which you obviously could care less about. Stupid worthless Tea bagger S.O.B.
Gee...maybe we should return to using DDT. Since Rachel Carson's exploitive and sensationalisitic book, brought about the birth of the environmentalist industry and led to the ban on DDT, millions of Africans and Asians have died of misquito borne diseases. Banning DDT may have saved some birds, but it has led to countless human deaths. This same chemical pesticide saved millions of civilians in WWII from the scourge of Malaria and Scrub Typhus in the Allied occupied areas. The Soviets, were not so concerned and millions died of typhus in their occupied zones.
Khalifa, you are so right! The murdering tyrants Stalin, Hitler, and Mao pale by comparison to the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS murdered by the pen of do-gooder idiot Carson. The earth is NOT overpopulated. Open your Bible on this New Year and realize HE IS! The Divinely Inspired genius of man can solve the world's issues, through God's highest creation- Humankind! Quit cheapening life through infanticide, euthanasia et al. Open your minds, you liberal champions of free thought!
Maybe you should take some time and read up on the human health issues related to dumping massive amounts of DDT on people before commenting.
Funny how those in the US can be so smug in determining who elsewhere in the world has the right to live and die based upon our religious views rgarding the environment and our misplaced worship of Mother Earth. The US used to have a malaria problem. Yellow Fever too. When was the last time you heard of anyone in the US suffereing or dying from malaria or Yellow Fever? Why? Because a century ago, farsighted leaders realized that we did not just have a "malaria" or a "Yellow Fever" problem. We had a mosquito problem. Specifically, the Anopheles misquito which carries malaria and Yellow Fever. The applied used massive amounts of public resources to ensure that the mosquito-killing compound, DDT, was liberally applied to our nations' waterways, lakes, rivers, swamps, and sprayed into the air by aircraft and mobile foggers. At one time, mosquito control trucks could be found on city streets and small towns throughout the US in the summer months filling the air with mosqito-killing fog.
The result? No more malaria or Yellow Fever deaths in the US. And perhaps there are some "human health issues" related to DDT, the fact is, people have a longer life-expectancy than ever in the US, and they do not have millions of children dying from malaria. Until the leaders in countries who are suffering from the scourge of malaria wake-up and treat it as they would any other invading enemy, and use every means at their disposal to eradicate it - especially DDT. Until they declare all-out war on the Anopheles mosquito, they will continue to see their women and children die by the millions from this invading enemy, and their countries will continue to fail to prosper from the debilitating effect the disease has on those who survive. But the leaders of those countries who have the courage to declare war on the Anopheles mosquito will need a strong backbone and courage to stand against the self-righteous "experts" who make pronouncements from the safety of their malaria-free countries about the supposed "harm" DDT causes to the ecosystem.
What the hell does this have to do with Liberals. Mexico still uses DDT to this day. Who the hell are you or anyone else to tell another country what pesticides they can and can't use. Talking out of your a$$ must be your specialty.
Score one for mother nature, cull the herd, its out of control!
Here we go- it's H1N1, mad cow, black plague, Stay-puf marshmallow man coming in to attack& kill us all! Straighten your tinfoil hats on your heads and run for the hills!
You are the guy with the tinfoil hat bud....These are real threats....
Steve- it's ok to come out from under your bed now... the boogeyman isn't gonna get ya!
This article is misleading there is some people this drug is not safe for some information from research showing that:
Theory:
Chlorproguanil-dapsone-artesunate (CDA) was a promising artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), but its development was prematurely stopped because of safety concerns secondary to its associated risk of haemolytic anaemia in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficient individuals.
Conclusion of research:
The use of CDA for treating uncomplicated malaria may increase the risk of haemolytic anaemia in G6PD-deficient children.
hey god have you always been a condescending a-hole a couple of missing periods or commas is the least of our problems
It's funny how we humans think we are so superior to every other living creature on earth when we still have so much to learn. It's sad that physicians and scientists who may perhaps know more than most on this subject are not taken seriously and lawmakers call the shots that end a lot of life saving shots.
Simple answer, Quit Breeding
Another simple answer: Kill yourself. Make room for someone better.
Simple, maybe, Alfred, but not feasible.
This should have been wiped out decades ago...Just wait until it returns to the First World....Again...