Thursday, September 08, 2016

Malaria

Malaria Capers is a very interesting history of the disease and its attempted cures, and its use (to cure syphilis). There've been many attempts at a vaccine, and plenty of treatments. BBC reports on a new attempt that shows promise in animals, attacking the parasite in a couple of stages of its development and, the article says, suppressing it for about a month. Pretty good--chloroquine we had to take every week. Over the years so many drugs have shown promise and failed, or begun to fail as the organism adapted, that it is hard to get excited. But who knows? Maybe this will be able to replace artemisinin, or maybe even be a long-term cure.

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