Posted on 01/21/2012 4:21:54 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Fake and poor quality malaria drugs risk crisis in Africa, warn scientists
Report calls for measures to prevent circulation of counterfeit and sub-standard medicines that threaten millions of lives
Sarah Boseley, health editor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 January 2012 19.51 GMT
Hopes of controlling malaria in Africa could be wrecked by criminals who are circulating counterfeit and substandard drugs, threatening millions of lives, scientists are warning.
They are calling for public health authorities to take urgent action to preserve the efficacy of the anti-malarials now being used in the worst-hit areas of the continent.
/snip
Artemisinins have replaced old medicines such as chloroquine and mefloquine in places where the malaria parasite has developed resistance. It is the common fate of anti-malarials, which is why the World Health Organisation has urged that the artemisinins should only be used in combination with other drugs, which delays resistance developing.
But large parts of Africa are threatened by the distribution of fake and poor quality anti-malarials made illicitly in China.
/snip
The fake drugs appear to have been made in eastern Asia. The researchers identified pollen from that region in some of the tablets. In 2001, police in Guangzhou, China, arrested Nigerian and Chinese men for production of counterfeits of the anti-malarial halofantrine. There was no evidence from the pollen analysis to suggest any of the drugs would have been manufactured in Africa, but production facilities for packaging materials for counterfeit anti-malarials have been seized in Nigeria.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Soon to come to the USA after Obama forces our drug industry to close?
Those horrible white colonialists are responsible for the suffering in Africa and the rest of the "developing world!"
(Please see tagline)
No good comes out of this combination.:-)
Recently I was reading that there are about 400 different strains of malaria. There’s a lot of research going on, especially to genetically modify the hosts so they can’t transmit it.
Bacterium Found to Kill Malaria in Mosquitoes
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a bacterium in field-caught mosquitoes that, when present, stops the development of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans. According to the study, the Enterobacter bacterium is part of the naturally occurring microbial flora of the mosquito’s gut and kills the parasite by producing reactive oxygen species (or free radical molecules). The study is published in the May 13, 2011 edition of Science.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a bacterium in field-caught mosquitoes that, when present, stops the development of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans. According to the study, the Enterobacter bacterium is part of the naturally occurring microbial flora of the mosquito’s gut and kills the parasite by producing reactive oxygen species (or free radical molecules). The study is published in the May 13 edition of Science.
“We’ve previously shown that the mosquito’s midgut bacteria can activate its immune system and thereby indirectly limit the development of the malaria parasite. In this study we show that certain bacteria can directly block the malaria parasite’s development through the production of free radicals that are detrimental to Plasmodium in the mosquito gut,” said George Dimopoulos, PhD, senior author of the study and associate professor at the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, and the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. “We are particularly excited about this discovery because it may explain why mosquitoes of the same species and strain sometimes differ in their resistance to the parasite, and we may also use this knowledge to develop novel methods to stop the spread of malaria. One biocontrol strategy may, for example, rely on the exposure of mosquitoes in the field to this natural bacterium, resulting in resistance to the malaria parasite. ”
Like humans, mosquitoes have a variety of bacteria in their digestive systems. For the study, the researchers isolated the Enterobacter bacterium from the midgut of Anopheles mosquitoes collected near the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute at Macha, which is located in southern Zambia. About 25 percent of the mosquitoes collected contained the specific bacteria strain. Laboratory studies showed the bacterium inhibited the growth of Plasmodium up to 99 percent, both in the mosquito gut and in a test tube culture of the human malaria parasite. Higher doses of bacteria had a greater impact on Plasmodium growth.
Worldwide, malaria afflicts more than 225 million people. Each year, the disease kills nearly 800,000, many of whom are children living in Africa.
I follow malaria research as my daughter has been doing it at NIH and now at a Med School.
Sorry, but we have enough of our own problems, and we have wasted far too much money, for NO tangible results, on Africa in the past 60+ years.
Africa needs to handle its own problems...
(somebody post the “That’s Racist” kid)
Not all the US.
Philadelphia, Atlanta, Memphis, Sacramento, Greensboro, Baltimore
I feel so good about myself now that I have said that. I'd feel much better about myself if I could actually do what I have said.
Nope. No spraying of DDT to kill mosquitoes. That stuff makes for thin bird egg shells so it is better to allow millions of blacks to die.
Exactly. The liberals/progressives/socialists have been getting a black eye over DDT and they’re furiously working to try and change their image on this issue. They’ve given out tons of nets (covered in insecticide) and have been working to get the malaria wonder drug to cover their shame at letting so many Africans die because of a flawed DDT experiment. They didn’t give the CHICKENS any calcium and that’s why the CHICKEN eggshells were thin, not DDT.
‘urgent action to preserve the efficacy of the anti-malarials - millions of lives, scientists are warning.’ TB, Malaria and HIV-AIDS and the cutting off of funding due to Aficas Anti-Gay legislation. This is a double whammy for Africa. I had predicted that this would happen. One has to wonder why is it that no Arab Countries face the same fate. It must be obamas new form of birth control for Africa.? Dec. 05 2011 African AIDS Funding to be Slashed Due to Anti-Gay Legislation
http://m.christianpost.com/news/african-aids-funding-to-be-slashed-due-to-anti-gay-legislation-64012/
“Foreign missions threatening to withhold aid to Nigeria , following the passage of the anti-gay marriage bill into law” Mark said the passage of the bill into law was irrevocable.
“It is unfair to tie whatever assistance or aide to Nigeria , to the laws we make in the overall interest of our citizens, otherwise we are tempted to believe that such assistance comes with ulterior motives.”
“If the assistance is aimed at mortgaging our future, values, customs and ways of life, then they should as well keep their assistance”. http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/76-hot-topic/30418-anti-gay-law-mark-defies-foreign-missions-over-aid
Not to worry. I’m sure that CHINA is willing to fill in the gaps. - anglian
Africa reacts to Obama’s pro-gay rights foreign policy with ire - 12/9/2011 | http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2818269/posts
Homosexual Imperialists Target Uganda
By Cliff Kincaid
“This institutional takeover by homosexuals has been systematic and planned, to the extent that other bodies like the UN, national governments, financial institutions, private companies, NGOs, etc. have become spokespersons of the gay movement and daily use official resources to promote the gay agenda and to arm-twist anyone who opposes this agenda.” http://www.usasurvival.org/ck01.16.10.html Obama Admin to ‘Leverage’ Foreign Aid for LGBT Rights
The Obama memorandum also does not clarify how it will ‘leverage’ aid.
The White House said:
The Administration’s dedication to LGBT rights does not stop at our borders, as the President made clear at the United Nations in September of this year when he said: “no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere.”
Following an interagency process coordinated by the National Security Staff, this memorandum directs the first-ever U.S. government strategy dedicated to combating human rights abuses against LGBT persons abroad. Today’s memorandum applies to the Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Export-Import Bank, the United States Trade Representative, and such other agencies as the President may designate.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/obama-admin-to-leverage-foreign-aid-for-lgbt-rights.html#ixzz1k6KoARwp
It sure must be nice that all sorts of epidemics can spread and millions of lives put at risk so you can feel good about the so called 'rights' of some gay persons in another country under it's own laws.
There is a huge problem with counterfeit material coming out of China. Almost all the recalls of circuit breakers in the U.S. in the past decade has been due to counterfeit Chinese parts. A lot of companies have anit-counterfeiting programs in place, which adds expense. We should never have let the Chinese genie out of the bottle.
Get out the DDT and spray bby spray!
Get out the DDT and spray bby spray!
Planned Parenthood.
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