After reading the title of this post does anyone have a problem with the Gates Foundation working to vaccine against malaria, hope not. This was not malaria that was passed on at a STD but rather a somewhat rare infection called Zika. The 
scientists were studying Malaria at the time and were bit several times. The link below has a video of Bill Gates’s presentation at TED from a couple years ago.
Bill Gates from the TED Presentation this week – Malaria and Education
Actually there’s a clinical trial slated to begin this year with an experimental vaccine. You can read down further and see how the CDC was also stumped on how this occurred and all sources together determined it was transferred to the scientists wife as an STD. This is kind of scary to say the least.
Clinical Trials to Begin for Malaria Vaccine Later This Year
As mentioned in the article with some climates warming and becoming breeding grounds it’s some thing to be aware of and I feel sorry for the wife of the scientist to have contracted this of course but it was also nice that she shared so the story on this being sexually transmitted was made possible. In 2007 an island was hit with an explosive outbreak of the infection that infected 70% of the population so it has been isolated to a degree, but what would happen if it were to spread? It’s not as deadly as malaria right now but being STD capable is pretty unnerving. Come to think of it, do we need mosquitos? At this point it’s just something that comes to mind if the lack of would destroy our ecosystem? Of course we can’t get rid of them but wonder about limited numbers? BD
Passing on an STD to your wife is not necessarily the kind of thing you want made public. For that matter, have the CDC make public. But when you're the first documented case of an insect-borne disease transmitted through sexual intercourse, you hardly have a choice.
Outside of this guy and his wife seriously taking one for the team, it's fascinating (and scary) how our planet's changing climate forces more and more of these diseases into our lives. For example, rising temperatures are already bringing malaria to new altitudes like Mount Kenya.
It not only stumped the two scientists, but many laboratories including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose lab for insect-borne diseases which is near where Foy lives in Fort Collins. A year later the mystery pathogen was deduced over a few rounds of beers--which usually leads to STDs--on a return trip to Senegalr. Both researchers had become infected with Zika.
Not much is known about Zika. Up until 2007, there were only 14 known cases. That year Yap Island was hit with an explosive outbreak that infected over 70% of the island's inhabitants. In comparison to malaria where a child dies in Africa every 43 seconds from the disease. It has gotten so out of hand that some of the solutions border on ridiculous, like this mosquito-zapping laser from TED.
0 comments :
Post a Comment