Bart Knols won the 2006 Biology Ig Nobel prize for his work showing that the female malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae is attracted equally to the smell of Limburger cheese and to the smell of human feet.
Survival TV is a series of BBC Documentaries about global health issues.
Episode 3 ” The Plant That Cures Malaria” is about Artemesenin production and distribution in Uganda.
On Sunday the 25th April, to commemorate World Malaria Day 2010, we will celebrate the “Long night of the Malaria Museum”.
The invitation is open, please just send an email beforehand if you think you are coming.
There will be a colonial theme with some quinine containing drinks and a cucumber sandwich or 2 …
I look forward to seeing you,
Marco
Here is an explanation of how it works:
And here are the results:
Here’s another use for the ever-flexible insecticide treated bednet. This time in Cambodia.
Fishing in Cambodia using a Mosquito Net
Thanks to Will Smith for finding it.
For a brief time malaria was used as treatment for tertiary syphilis because it produced prolonged and high fevers (a form of pyrotherapy). This was considered an acceptable risk because the malaria could later be treated with quinine, which was available at that time. This discovery was championed by Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who won the 1927 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work in this area.
When I asked my (English) diving instructor in Mozambique whether he recommends taking the prophlaxic, he told me he gets malaria about 3 times a year and when he does he goes to the doctor, takes the medicine and a few days later he’s OK again.
This post is part of a series called “Overheard” . We take no responsibility for the authenticity of these posts, they are intended as discussion points only and not as reliable sources.
Our sources remain anonymous unless otherwise stated.
Have yet to meet anybody who takes Malaria remotely seriously: natives, foreign workers, people who have never had it, people who have had it…they all treat it like a minor inconvenience. It is fascinating how many people have implied I’m a hypochondriac because i wanted a net..everyone says the same thing “We don’t have malaria here…but if you do get it just take the pills!”
This post is part of a series called “Overheard” . We take no responsibility for the authenticity of these posts, they are intended as discussion points only and not as reliable sources.