We live in a malarious world

I was reading the new National Geographic at my last chiropractor appointment today. After six months of treatment, my neck is now 14mm off center. Normal is 5-10mm and when I started, I was at 20mm. “We live in a malarious world,” I replied when Dr. Adam asked me what was new in National Geographic. I remember reading about malaria several years ago in the magazine. It said then that a minute amount of DDT would save hundreds of thousands of the million Africans now dying from the disease every year but because of the ban, it had become nearly impossible to procure.

In the 1930's millions of cases of malaria had been recorded in the United States, mostly in the humid south. In 1948, a Swiss chemist created a compound called DDT that was nothing short of a miracle. Microscopic amounts could kill and continue to kill malarial mosquitoes for months, and it was cheap. In 1955, the World Health Organization launched a program to eradicate the disease worldwide in ten years. More than a billion dollars were spent and it was possibly the most elaborate international health initiative ever undertaken.

In the United States, it had already been wiped out. Windows were screened, swamps were bulldozed, wetlands drained and sprayed with DDT and everyone had access to a doctor and treatment. In addition, the species of mosquito transmitting it preferred cows over humans. The WHO program achieved some success, virtually destroying it in Brazil, the Caribbean, South Pacific, Europe and Asia. But this intelligent parasite persisted in the deep tropics and the program was abandoned in 1969. It immediately roared back to life in India and Sri Lanka and although it had never been abated in Africa, the ban of DDT due to overuse, caused incidences there to triple.

The malaria parasite is one of the world's oldest diseases. It's believed that it afflicted dinosaurs! It attacked animals long before there were men and affects mice, birds, snakes, bats, flying squirrels and monkeys. It has played a role throughout history, possibly killing Alexander the Great, weakening the armies of Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan, and ending the life of Dante, the Italian poet. It afflicted so many in Washington D.C. including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, that one physician proposed erecting a giant wire screen around the city. A million soldiers in the civil war died of it. In fact, some scientists guess that as many as half of everyone who has ever lived on the planet, died of malaria. It devastates countries and economies, killing and weakening entire populations. A survivor of malaria will suffer its effects their entire life.

There has never been a vaccine for a parasite. Viruses and bacterias, yes, but the polio virus for example has only 11 genes compared to malaria's 5000. It is a complex and rapidly evolving organism built to multiply at astronomical rates, destroy everything and mutate to resist drugs. After decades of neglect, people with money have started to care again about malaria. It now threatens more people than ever, half of the world's population. Three thousand children die of the disease every day and even with the hundreds of millions of dollars donated by Bill Gates to help eradicate what he has called “the worst thing on the planet” and 1.2 billion pledged by the Bush Administration, the allies of malaria continue. Lack of education, limited access to health care, the constant threat of war, and a weak infrastructure present formidable challenges to distributing prevention techniques and treatments.

Ninety-five percent of the malaria deaths are caused by the most virulent of the four species. It attacks the brain and does so with such speed that it can literally kill overnight. Even victims who are lucky enough to survive, likely do so with permanent neurological damage. Ninety teams around the world are working on some aspect of a vaccine but only one company is dedicated to it. Its CEO, Stephen Hoffman, has spent the thirty-four years of his life in this pursuit. In 1984, a headline in The New York Times read “MALARIA VACCINE IS NEAR” in response to the success of the company Hoffman then worked for. In 1991, the paper's headline read “EFFORT TO FIGHT MALARIA APPEARS TO HAVE FAILED.”

It isn't likely that this millions of year old parasite will go easily but we must not give up the fight. Global warming has increased the range of the malarial mosquito, increasing the temperature and allowing it to live in places once too cold. There are three things we have to combat malaria: Nets (to prevent bites), treatment drugs and DDT (to kill the mosquitoes).

Here's what we can do: Donate to organizations that provide bed nets and other supplies to malaria-ridden countries. Malaria No More and Nothing But Nets are two such organizations. And purchase the hip (Red) products that support Global Fund which fights AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, the world's three deadliest diseases.