MaxFan

February 05, 2009 at 8:25am

Undoubtably you are one of those who will be bitten in the ass by history before it becomes important to you.  A little History lesson for you:

Prior to 1890 Malaria was among the top 5 causes of death's due to disease or pandemic world wide.  Along with Small Pox (eradicated by the W.H.O. in the 70's but not cured.)  Influenza (still a killer worldwide no cure) Polio Melitis (still a problem in developing nations today no cure )  Typhus ( still a killer in all nations even the US no cure) and Yellow Fever (still a killer in developing nations curable)  Malaria is carried by the Anopheles Misquito and is a protozoan that lives in the gut of the Misquito and is part of the digestive juices that are placed inside the misquito's proboscis to aid in retrieval of blood from animals or humans.  Yellow Fever and Malaria are one of a very few classes of diseases that are not bacteriological in context that could actually be eradicated if the time and effort was spent to do so.  Malarias only known method of transmission is from the bite of an infected Anopheles Misquito. The Anopholes Misquito having to have bitten an infected person in order to become infected itself.  Therefore by simply localizing and isolating knowm carriers of malaria to prevent them from being bitten by an Anopholoes Misquito the disease itself would have to die out completely.  Eradication of the Anopholes Misquito would also serve this purpose. 

This is actually doable.  Provided enough time and or effort (read dollars) is expended to do so.  once eradicated malaria becomes a thing of history never to return.  Another killer reduced to status of a lab tool.  

What more noble purpose would YOU have Bill and Melinda spend their money on?  Their effort have saved lives.  what does YOUR effort do?  If you cannot at least say that, then do not denigrate their efforts.

 

krust

February 05, 2009 at 4:54am

Dude. I have had Malaria half a dozen times when I lived in Mozambique. Without proper medication you are screwed.

Imagine what´s it like to live somewhere without access to an hospital, and you are vulnerable to a mosquito bite. And it´s not just a few mosquitoes. We´re talking a lot of mosquitoes all over the place.

Just because he doesn´t dedicate his money to some mainstream disease, it does not mean it´s unimportant.

 

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You get +1 Reading Skill

I Jedi

February 04, 2009 at 10:43pm

What would you have him focus on, then? Malaria is something just as serious as other diseases, as its a life threatining disease. I do believe that erradicating this is in people's best interest, even if you don't think it'll be. 

Zeroblizzard

February 05, 2009 at 10:10am

Malaria is bad. Most every other lethal disease is bad (I can't think of one that isn't) for our survival as a species. If he wants to bring up malaria as a disease that can be eradicated, then he's allowed to do that. In fact, you people should be supporting him (preferably with money). Saying that other diseases need attention is doing exactly what Bill Gates was doing (bringing attention to the problem), but I don't think you have the kind of public klout needed to actually convince people to give money for it.

 

I hope you never get the oppurtunity to hold another person's life in your hands. You would fail at that. STFU and GTFO.