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Sri Lanka Is Declared Malaria Free by World Health Organization

323 points by known 10y ago

AhtiK 10y ago
Any ideas if this means the region is now also free of dengue fever causing virus that is also spread by mosquitoes?
- a3_nm 10y ago
  I would guess not, because even Singapore and Bali are not dengue-free even though they are malaria-free. (But that's just a guess -- I'd be interested in a reliable source.)
  - Arnot 10y ago
    I was there on a holiday a few weeks ago. While they told us that malaria isn't a problem anymore, they still warn tourists to protect against mosquito bites as they can still carry dengue fever. From a quick google it seems that malaria and dengue are spread by different mosquitoes, which might be why only one if the two is gone now.
    - Turing_Machine 10y ago
      Yep. Malaria is spread by Anopheles mosquitoes, while dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, and other Flaviviruses are mostly spread by Aedes mosquitoes. In addition, Plasmodium (malaria) strains are much more species-specific than Flaviviruses. That is, while non-human animals can get a form of malaria, their malaria is usually not transmissible to humans. The Flaviviruses are much less selective (e.g., West Nile can infect birds as well as humans). This makes controlling the Flaviviral infections more difficult, as there's a virus reservoir in the animal population. Just wiping out the mosquitoes around humans isn't enough. You'd have to wipe out all the mosquitoes throughout the entire region.
- noselasd 10y ago
  Sri Lanka have had 38419 suspected cases of dengu so far this year: http://www.epid.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=171%3Adengue-update&catid=51%3Amessage-for-public&Itemid=487&lang=en http://www.epid.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_content&view...
deleted 10y ago
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Ericson2314 10y ago
Compensation for Venezuela...
- kajjffkk 10y ago
  I dont get it.
  - Sanddancer 10y ago
    Venezuela was the first country that was ever declared malaria-free, but is currently dealing with an epidemic due to various social and economic reasons. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/world/venezuela-malaria-mines.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/world/venezuela-malaria-mi...
    - Ericson2314 10y ago
      Yes
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
AnimalMuppet 10y ago
Declared malaria-free by who? (Sorry, couldn't resist...) Seriously, this is very good news. But... does anyone know how hard it is to keep someplace malaria-free? Is this once-and-for-all, or does it require continual maintenance?
- kajjffkk 10y ago
  https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
j_koreth 10y ago
Truly a monumental moment in human history, the beginning of the elimination of malaria, one of the biggest killers of all time
- Mikeb85 10y ago
  Next up, the flu.
  - chimprich 10y ago
    Flu is practically impossible to eradicate at current technology levels because we don't have many defences against it and there is a large natural reservoir in wild birds.
- JacobAldridge 10y ago
  Not really the beginning, but hopefully another big step. The USA was declared Malaria free in 1949 after a specific elimination project - it seems the CDC actually evolved from the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas, established in 1942. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    And now there are more and more cases of Dengue and W. Nile and Yellow Fever in the US, mostly because the CDC stopped doing national mosquito control and its near powerless to resume that since NIMBY is more important than not catching tropical diseases apparently.
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WhitneyLand 10y ago
A much faster solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive
- nerdponx 10y ago
  > Gene drives function only in secually reproducing species I don't see why this is necessarily the case. Couldn't you, say, slow yeast budding to the point of population collapse?
  - dflock 10y ago
    Sure, causing your expensive crispr yeast to die out, while having no effect on wild yeast?
  - tgb 10y ago
    The only organisms affected in an asexually reproducing species would be the direct descendants of those that you treat. In a sexually reproducing species, the goal is to engineer the gene to spread throughout the entire population, even if it reduces the individual fitness. Edit: though I guess I'm stating this poorly, since it would still only affect the direct descendants of those that you treat in a sexually reproducing species, however there's the possibility of that becoming 100% of the species without having to kill off all the untreated specimens.
shanev 10y ago
As a person of Sri Lankan descent, this is great news. However, the elimination of malaria in Sardinia was correlated with the rapid rise of multiple sclerosis and type-1 diabetes. This is because the parasite that causes malaria is also thought to be protective against MS and diabetes [1]. I hope that was considered in this case, because if not we're just trading one problem for another. [1]: https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-015-0306-7 https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s1291...
hliyan 10y ago
Sri Lankan here. We're not exactly celebrating because within the last 10 years, cases of dengue fever has risen from about 9000 to 32000:http://www.dengue.health.gov.lk/index.php/information-on-dengue/sri-lankan-situation http://www.dengue.health.gov.lk/index.php/information-on-den... Another interesting thing: when DDT was banned in the 1960's, Sri Lanka's malaria cases went from 17 to half a million: http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2005/02/17/ddt3/ http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2005/02/17/ddt3/
- themartorana 10y ago
  The pull back from DDT has had all kinds of devastating effects. For instance, bedbugs are an actual fear now, for the first time in ages. But there has been outrage about the effects of wealthy nations that drew the benefits of DDT before banning it (like, getting rid of malaria) and now putting pressure on poorer nations to _not_ use DDT, and suffer the consequences. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/magazine/what-the-world-needs-now-is-ddt.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/magazine/what-the-world...
  - lostlogin 10y ago
    Did you read that link? DDT doesn't work and it's toxic, making it a terrible choice.
    - ghshephard 10y ago
      WHO suggests DDT is safe and effective to use indoors to combat malaria: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/ "Indoor residual spraying is useful to quickly reduce the number of infections caused by malaria-carrying mosquitoes. IRS has proven to be just as cost effective as other malaria prevention measures, and DDT presents no health risk when used properly.” What people consistently fail to take note - Malaria is an absolutely terrible disease, killing over 1 million people/year, so even if DDT was toxic (which it's not) and only marginally helpful (Also which it's not, very helpful indoors) - it would still be worth using if it could reduce the fatality rate by even 1%. That's 10,000 human lives saved. And that doesn't even include the 200 million plus people who suffer from Malaria. But given that DDT is neither toxic, nor ineffective, it should be used wherever appropriate.
jfoster 10y ago
Does anyone know what eradication techniques they used to such great effect on malaria, but allowed for an increase in dengue? I would've expected malaria and dengue to move together for any commonly used eradication technique.
- tim333 10y ago
  Different mosquitos >Success in controlling malaria over the past century has been attributed predominantly to widespread implementation of insecticide-treated bednets, household spraying of residual insecticides, and effective drugs to reduce mortality and interrupt transmission doesn't work with Dengue because they bite during the day and there are no effective drugs. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574272/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574272/ though there are other ways we might take out the aegypti blighters https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600689/we-have-the-technology-to-destroy-all-zika-mosquitoes/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600689/we-have-the-techno... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536074
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Amelia147 10y ago
Greetings! I am sure that World health organization is a very helpful for every country and all people. Thanks for taking the time and sharing with us this informative post. I think that get rid of some disease is a great achievement. I with everyone to be in good health. Please keep it good posting. And don't forget that you may use www.custom-paper-writing.org for all new posts and be sure in their quality.

323 points by known 10y ago

AhtiK 10y ago

Any ideas if this means the region is now also free of dengue fever causing virus that is also spread by mosquitoes?

a3_nm 10y ago
I would guess not, because even Singapore and Bali are not dengue-free even though they are malaria-free. (But that's just a guess -- I'd be interested in a reliable source.)
- Arnot 10y ago
  I was there on a holiday a few weeks ago. While they told us that malaria isn't a problem anymore, they still warn tourists to protect against mosquito bites as they can still carry dengue fever. From a quick google it seems that malaria and dengue are spread by different mosquitoes, which might be why only one if the two is gone now.
  - Turing_Machine 10y ago
    Yep. Malaria is spread by Anopheles mosquitoes, while dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, and other Flaviviruses are mostly spread by Aedes mosquitoes. In addition, Plasmodium (malaria) strains are much more species-specific than Flaviviruses. That is, while non-human animals can get a form of malaria, their malaria is usually not transmissible to humans. The Flaviviruses are much less selective (e.g., West Nile can infect birds as well as humans). This makes controlling the Flaviviral infections more difficult, as there's a virus reservoir in the animal population. Just wiping out the mosquitoes around humans isn't enough. You'd have to wipe out all the mosquitoes throughout the entire region.
noselasd 10y ago
Sri Lanka have had 38419 suspected cases of dengu so far this year: http://www.epid.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=171%3Adengue-update&catid=51%3Amessage-for-public&Itemid=487&lang=en http://www.epid.gov.lk/web/index.php?option=com_content&view...

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Ericson2314 10y ago

Compensation for Venezuela...

kajjffkk 10y ago
I dont get it.
- Sanddancer 10y ago
  Venezuela was the first country that was ever declared malaria-free, but is currently dealing with an epidemic due to various social and economic reasons. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/world/venezuela-malaria-mines.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/world/venezuela-malaria-mi...
  - Ericson2314 10y ago
    Yes
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

AnimalMuppet 10y ago

Declared malaria-free by who? (Sorry, couldn't resist...) Seriously, this is very good news. But... does anyone know how hard it is to keep someplace malaria-free? Is this once-and-for-all, or does it require continual maintenance?

kajjffkk 10y ago
https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

j_koreth 10y ago

Truly a monumental moment in human history, the beginning of the elimination of malaria, one of the biggest killers of all time

Mikeb85 10y ago
Next up, the flu.
- chimprich 10y ago
  Flu is practically impossible to eradicate at current technology levels because we don't have many defences against it and there is a large natural reservoir in wild birds.
JacobAldridge 10y ago
Not really the beginning, but hopefully another big step. The USA was declared Malaria free in 1949 after a specific elimination project - it seems the CDC actually evolved from the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas, established in 1942. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.htm...
- dogma1138 10y ago
  And now there are more and more cases of Dengue and W. Nile and Yellow Fever in the US, mostly because the CDC stopped doing national mosquito control and its near powerless to resume that since NIMBY is more important than not catching tropical diseases apparently.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

WhitneyLand 10y ago

A much faster solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive

nerdponx 10y ago
> Gene drives function only in secually reproducing species I don't see why this is necessarily the case. Couldn't you, say, slow yeast budding to the point of population collapse?
- dflock 10y ago
  Sure, causing your expensive crispr yeast to die out, while having no effect on wild yeast?
- tgb 10y ago
  The only organisms affected in an asexually reproducing species would be the direct descendants of those that you treat. In a sexually reproducing species, the goal is to engineer the gene to spread throughout the entire population, even if it reduces the individual fitness. Edit: though I guess I'm stating this poorly, since it would still only affect the direct descendants of those that you treat in a sexually reproducing species, however there's the possibility of that becoming 100% of the species without having to kill off all the untreated specimens.

shanev 10y ago

As a person of Sri Lankan descent, this is great news. However, the elimination of malaria in Sardinia was correlated with the rapid rise of multiple sclerosis and type-1 diabetes. This is because the parasite that causes malaria is also thought to be protective against MS and diabetes [1]. I hope that was considered in this case, because if not we're just trading one problem for another. [1]: https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-015-0306-7 https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s1291...

hliyan 10y ago

Sri Lankan here. We're not exactly celebrating because within the last 10 years, cases of dengue fever has risen from about 9000 to 32000:http://www.dengue.health.gov.lk/index.php/information-on-dengue/sri-lankan-situation http://www.dengue.health.gov.lk/index.php/information-on-den... Another interesting thing: when DDT was banned in the 1960's, Sri Lanka's malaria cases went from 17 to half a million: http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2005/02/17/ddt3/ http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2005/02/17/ddt3/

themartorana 10y ago
The pull back from DDT has had all kinds of devastating effects. For instance, bedbugs are an actual fear now, for the first time in ages. But there has been outrage about the effects of wealthy nations that drew the benefits of DDT before banning it (like, getting rid of malaria) and now putting pressure on poorer nations to _not_ use DDT, and suffer the consequences. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/magazine/what-the-world-needs-now-is-ddt.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/magazine/what-the-world...
- lostlogin 10y ago
  Did you read that link? DDT doesn't work and it's toxic, making it a terrible choice.
  - ghshephard 10y ago
    WHO suggests DDT is safe and effective to use indoors to combat malaria: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/ "Indoor residual spraying is useful to quickly reduce the number of infections caused by malaria-carrying mosquitoes. IRS has proven to be just as cost effective as other malaria prevention measures, and DDT presents no health risk when used properly.” What people consistently fail to take note - Malaria is an absolutely terrible disease, killing over 1 million people/year, so even if DDT was toxic (which it's not) and only marginally helpful (Also which it's not, very helpful indoors) - it would still be worth using if it could reduce the fatality rate by even 1%. That's 10,000 human lives saved. And that doesn't even include the 200 million plus people who suffer from Malaria. But given that DDT is neither toxic, nor ineffective, it should be used wherever appropriate.

jfoster 10y ago

Does anyone know what eradication techniques they used to such great effect on malaria, but allowed for an increase in dengue? I would've expected malaria and dengue to move together for any commonly used eradication technique.

tim333 10y ago
Different mosquitos >Success in controlling malaria over the past century has been attributed predominantly to widespread implementation of insecticide-treated bednets, household spraying of residual insecticides, and effective drugs to reduce mortality and interrupt transmission doesn't work with Dengue because they bite during the day and there are no effective drugs. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574272/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3574272/ though there are other ways we might take out the aegypti blighters https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600689/we-have-the-technology-to-destroy-all-zika-mosquitoes/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600689/we-have-the-techno... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536074 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536074

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Amelia147 10y ago

Greetings! I am sure that World health organization is a very helpful for every country and all people. Thanks for taking the time and sharing with us this informative post. I think that get rid of some disease is a great achievement. I with everyone to be in good health. Please keep it good posting. And don't forget that you may use www.custom-paper-writing.org for all new posts and be sure in their quality.