Talk:Malaria

Prophylactic drugs may encourage the development of partial immunity.

"The use of prophylactic drugs where malaria-bearing mosquitoes are present may encourage the development of partial immunity.[54]"

It is not clear from this phrase and its context within the article whether the humans can develop partial immunity to the plasmodium or if the plasmodium can develop partial immunity to the prophylactic drugs. If someone has access to the original source (or to a different source), please confirm and rephrase. --nunocordeiro (talk) 13:46, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Bite?

There is continual reference to being bitten by mosquitos throughout the article. Do not mosquitos not sting their prey? GoufR (talk) 13:29, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

No they stick a thin mouthpiece like a tiny hypodermic needle into you and suck out a few microlitres of your blood. Tim Vickers (talk) 15:34, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

"Sting" usually means that they do it to cause pain and drive you off. "Bite" implies they're feeding, which is what they're doing. The less you feel it, the better. SDY (talk) 23:58, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Ahh, great stuff. Thanks. Oh well, asking is learning :) GoufR (talk) 07:01, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Mosquito symbiosis / biological 'warfare'

Taking a quick look at the symptoms, it strikes me that hemolysis may directly benefit the mosquito upon the next feeding, or the next-feeding mosquitos, and the fever and altered odor of the infected individual will make them that much easier to locate and attack. I suspect there is way more co-evolution connection here than in most diseases that are merely transmitted along by a parasite. Has anyone done any research into this connection that can be added to the article?Zaphraud (talk) 03:49, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Treatment

Baird JK (2009). "Resistance to therapies for infection by Plasmodium vivax". Clinical Microbiology Reviews. 22 (3): 508–34. The gravity of the threat posed by vivax malaria to public health has been poorly appreciated. The widely held misperception of Plasmodium vivax as being relatively infrequent, benign, and easily treated explains its nearly complete neglect across the range of biological and clinical research. Recent evidence suggests a far higher and more-severe disease burden imposed by increasingly drug-resistant parasites. The two frontline therapies against vivax malaria, chloroquine and primaquine, may be failing. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

PMID 19597012. doi 10.1128/CMR.00008-09

24.60.190.107 (talk) 13:51, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Although many are under development, the challenge of producing a widely available vaccine that provides a high level...

Before; "Although many are under development, the challenge of producing a widely available vaccine that provides a high level of protection for a sustained period is still to met[8]"

The grammar in this sentence needs to be sorted out:

After; "Although many vaccines are under development, the challenge of producing a widely available vaccine that provides a high level of protection for a sustained period is still to be met[8]."

The above sentence makes the sentence easier to understand and fixes the grammar.

Please can someone edit this into the page as I do not have a WikiPedia account and have no time to make one, Thankyou. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.43.246.105 (talk) 18:06, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

Genetic resistance to malaria

The malaria article is already at the upper limit of length and I would suggest the bulk of the genetic resistance material in Malaria go into the new Genetic resistance to malaria page. I think this subject deserves a page on its own: it is a biological subject of fundamental importance with common elements that nevertheless cross a number of fields. The mechanisms by which sickle cell disease and thalassaemia (to include just two examples from many) protect against malaria have been subject to investigation for several decades and remain unclear in several key aspects. A summary can be provided on the malaria page Scientist2 (talk) 00:08, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Sure, but that genetic resistance article is in a terrible shape at the moment. Tim Vickers (talk) 01:32, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

It would seem then that the best thing to do is try to take the relevant content of the themes covered in this section of the malaria article and move them into the genetic page, ensuring the article is referenced in the process. That will take some committed effort... Scientist2 (talk) 14:53, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, we do have some good sub-articles to serve as a model, User:Hempelmann has created both Hemozoin‎ and History of malaria, which are well-formatted and referenced. I'll certainly try to help, but am a bit swamped with the various influenza articles at the moment. Tim Vickers (talk) 16:37, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Started to write the sub-article on Genetic resistance to malaria User:Hempelmann 4 December 2009

Error on syphilis section

I was reading the syphilis section of the malaria page, and it didn't make sense, then I realized it should have said, "kill the syphilis spirochetes" instead of "kill the malaria spirochetes. Can someone fix this? I am a new user and don't have access to make changes yet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saprus (talk • contribs) 02:36, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

done. thanks Sean.hoyland - talk 10:31, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

About Plasmodium falciparum...

Isn't it a tropica? at least that's what my biology book says. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Calvin Limuel (talk • contribs) 21:43, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Use of DDT, oil, draining breeding areas

There is no balance or mention of the biological implications of draining or poisoning wetlands, and the effects upon the plethora of species which inhabit these areas, not to mention upon humans who rely on clean drinking water and a functioning, clean ecosystem.