New Vaccine Halves Malaria Risk 147
An anonymous reader writes "According to a report in Reuters, scientists are celebrating the end of a clinical trial which found a malaria vaccine reduces infection risk by half in children. From the article: 'While scientists say it is no "silver bullet" and will not end the mosquito-borne infection on its own, it is being hailed as a crucial weapon in the fight against malaria and one that could speed the path to eventual worldwide eradication. Malaria is caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of mosquitoes. It kills more than 780,000 people per year, most of them babies or very young children in Africa. Cohen's vaccine goes to work at the point when the parasite enters the human bloodstream after a mosquito bite. By stimulating an immune response, it can prevent the parasite from maturing and multiplying in the liver. ... Cohen said that if all goes to plan, RTS,S could be licensed and rolled out by 2015.'"
Re:good or bad? (Score:2, Insightful)
About a million people die each year from Malaria. That's a drop in the ocean compared to the net increase in humans. Nothing short of massive cultural shifts in large swathes of the world will halt global population problems.
Re:Malaria seems to be adaptable (Score:2, Insightful)
Vaccines != antibiotics.
Incredible Result (Score:4, Insightful)
And as for all of the "Won't this lead to overpopulation" comments, I think it will do the opposite. Birth rates in malaria areas are very high in part because of the poverty and lack of education in those areas. Those areas are poor in part because of malaria and its ability to ravage families. There may be an initial population spike from this vaccine, but time and again we have seen that increasing the standard of living lowers the birth rate. The best way to control overpopulation is to reduce poverty and educate people (specifically women). This vaccine goes a long way to doing both.
Re:Poverty is the REAL issue (Score:5, Insightful)
Is a man who dedicates half his fortune to curing a major cause of death in the third world to establish his good name really any worse than the man who does same for purely altruistic reasons? The money's the same, after all.
It's a damn sight easier to eliminate a disease than to eliminate poverty. If they have more bodies available to work, then the economy will pick up. Baby steps.
Re:Poverty is the REAL issue (Score:4, Insightful)
If they have more bodies available to work, then the economy will pick up. Baby steps.
Africa already has the highest population growth. A successful economy needs more then that just people.
Gates already has a good name (Score:5, Insightful)
Some times the pathetic attitude of people here really disappoints me.
Even with his billions he can't lift the world out of recession, he has the same hamstring everyone does, government. How do you propose solving government induced poverty? Spend his billions trying to overthrow petty tyrants? How do you expect him to sort out which start ups have a possibility at success let alone are not scams or will simply succumb to the corrupt governments of the countries they are in?
You seem to ascribe a lot of guilt to one man who actually is trying do good. Did you ever consider that he has evaluated his options and is taking the choice that provides the best bang for the buck?
What are you doing, please don't say that since you don't have X amount of money you cannot help.
Re:Poverty is the REAL issue (Score:5, Insightful)
Basically, he spends money now on curing human SYMPTOMS, while ignoring the main issue that really needs to worked on: poverty.
You would make a really shitty triage doctor. When a patient is laying on the gurney with a gunshot wound, you don't throw your hands up and say "Well, until I can treat the underlying problem of gang violence that got him here, fuck it." Helping end disease in Africa will mean a major improvement in lives there. Would it be nice to ALSO end poverty? You betcha. But when you have limited resources, you don't START with the hardest and most intractable problems, you start out with the smaller problems that you can actually SOLVE with those limited resources.
Even a Bill Gates, with his vast individual wealth, couldn't even begin to deal with the issue of poverty in Africa. That would take a coalition of dozens (if not hundreds) of governments willing to pool their resources and work together. And even then it would be a HUGE challenge.
What's REALLY sad that people on /. can't look past their mindless hatred of Bill Gates to acknowledge the real good he's doing in Africa. The bizarre thing is that some of these same people are the ones who cried like their daddy had died when Steve Jobs died--a man who lined his own pockets with billions while never doing ANYTHING to help the sick and impoverished. Not one fucking THING have you or your idol done for the poor in Africa, yet all you can do is criticize Bill Gates, one of the few who is actually getting off his ass and doing something to help.
Re:Poverty is the REAL issue (Score:4, Insightful)
Employment rates in Africa are terrible. The problem is not a shortage of workforce.
Re:Poverty is the REAL issue (Score:3, Insightful)
When you solve malaria, you will now cut the death rate. That will put pressure on the local community. LOADS of it. Right now, the reason why Malaria spread so quickly and easily is because mosquitoes carry it from one person to another. They are right next to each other. Once malaria is cured, then another disease will step right up there because more ppl will occupy the same space, but with the same amount of money to solve issues. Actually less overall as well as less per person. Once it is realized by gates that he screwed up, he will not want to solve the next symptom.
The ONLY answer is to solve poverty. You solve poverty by creating new companies, and then have these companies invest into the local area. Those investments clean up the area, while employing ppl. Once you clean up an area, and have enough money to separate ppl, then disease drops.
BTW, I suspect that even the above will be false. I doubt that gates or others like yourself will look at this rationally and logically. For example, America keeps pouring food and other resources into solving Africa and south America's problems. Yet, new ones pop up. The SMART solution is to work these locals and give them the same capabilities that we have: solve problems LOCALLY. By having enough to deal with it. Brazil is a nation that is building itself up this way. And they ARE addressing issues.
Re:Do some research (Score:4, Insightful)
You're an idiot. Which is better? A foundation that invests in things that make money, and can therefore give the profits of those investments to charities for an extended period of time (forever, if the investments are good), or a foundation that gives away all it's worth at once?
Re:Gates already has a good name (Score:4, Insightful)
It is HIS money. He can spend it the way that he sees fit. HOWEVER, just as America's efforts on Africa for the last 60 years have hardly paid off. We never solved the real issue which is POVERTY. We gave them free food which in turn, took local farmers out of work. How can you compete with FREE food? YOu can not. Gate's solution is the same way. he will solve one problem, but it will only increase the other issues: population increases without monetary increases.
The only workable solution is to help them start businesses and build up infrastructures such as hospitals and schools. Mostly schools.
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. teach a man to fish, you feed him and his kin for life. If nothing else, look at how much good we did in Europe, Japan, and south korea with marshal plan and then later in China with our current stuff. Europe was brought back to life after being devasted in WWII by working closely with them. By the 70's, they Europe, japan were on their feet. SK has come into their own over the last 2 decades.
China is a different issue. We sought to do the same, but Chinese leaders are in a cold war with the west, which is why we are going to have to do something soon. The best thing that we can do with Africa and South America is help them expand economically.