In Reply to: there are many kinds of malaria pills posted by icis on Saturday, 2. October 2010 at 21:26 Bali Time:
an Indonesian. What about talking as a doctor?
"There are impacts of tourists' use of prophylaxis. The malaria plasmodium is mutating continuously. The same way bacteria became resistant to penicillin - the magic antibiotic of the sixties - the strains of malaria are becoming immune to modern medicines. In many countries, the classic Quinine and Chloroquine medicines have become completely ineffective. One might think that it is easy enough for a traveler to pick-up a new medicine and be ready for the next tropical vacation. That new medicine too could soon become ineffective. Our biggest concern should be for the people living in those areas who do not have access to new medicines to combat newly resistant strains. When such medicines are available, they rarely can afford it. They rely on the natural medicines they have always used. When those become ineffective, the people succumb to the mutated disease we have helped to create by taking preventative prophylaxis. With more than 2 billion people exposed to this disease, we all have a responsibility to stop the mutation of Malaria. "
Peter Singfield, a Iatrologist in Belize wrote:
Over use of prophylactics in the war on malaria forced the malaria to evolve into a severe pathonogenic instead of a symbiotic relation. People raveling through endemic malaria areas full of prophylactics are only compounding the problem for the locals.
Peter Singfield
Quote from the August 97 issue of the American magazine The Atlantic Monthly entitled "Resurgence of a Deadly Disease" by Ellen Rippel Shell. (The article discusses why science is currently losing the war against the spread of malaria. Last paragraph quoted here) :
...But in the West early success in controlling infectious disease has bred arrogance and a belief in whopping big solutions--vaccines and antibiotics that wipe out rather than contain. We know successful pathogens to be highly evolved and clever creatures, but we bluster about, attacking them as though they were the dumb, plodding aggressors that perhaps we ourselves are. When a microbe mutates around our onslaught, we go off in search of a bigger weapon with which to blast it. But like all re-emerging diseases, malaria has managed not only to dodge the bullets but also to turn the revolver back at us. Our attacks have made the parasite not weaker and less certain but more virulent. Controlling this disease requires vigilance, patience, and, to a certain degree, sacrifice--there are places we might have to avoid. There are tradeoffs to be made, but so far we've shown ourselves reluctant to make them. Scientists pursue their quest for an effective vaccine or a more powerful drug while treasure hunters of another kind [miners mentioned previously in the article] in Thailand and Brazil help the disease find a new foothold. Whether the scientific adventures will eventually pay off is uncertain, but for now there's no question that a price is being paid. Malaria, an ancient disease, a controllable disease, is spreading.
by Ellen Rippel Shell