Kenya:

I thought that the melanin in our skin is supposed to protect us from Malaria?
The browner you are the more you are protected. I guess this is wrong.

Actually that just protects our skin from high levels of exposure to the sun and provides protection against sunburn and the development of melanoma, a potentially extremely deadly form of skin cancer

more on Melanin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanin

for more info on malaria

WHO
http://mosquito.who.int/cmc_upload/0/000/015/372/RBMInfosheet_1.htm
http://www-micro.msb.le.ac.uk/224/Malaria.html

Thanks for the info, I'll look into it. Wow

Remember the EU is threating to withdraw all relations with Uganda because Uganda is using DDT to reduce the deaths, because that's the only thing they can afford. Because of the withdrawal 9 million children more will diew each year in Uganda.

You're right, it is wrong. Melanin doesn't protect at all from malaria.

It is true though that carriers of the sickle cell gene have a higher resistance to malaria, and because of that we have more sicklers in subsaharan Africa.

Hey Seun, Do u know anything related to the Sickle Cell disease...?
My sister is a sickler...and she is always in and out of hospital...

These Oyinbo doctors do not know too much about this disease...since it only effects the black race...
If you have any information such as symptoms, treatements...etc please do inform moi...

There is a lot of information on the web about sickle cell, just do a search in google
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=DVXA,DVXA:2005-36,DVXA:en&q=sickle%2Bcell%2Bresources

Depending on your location you can get your sister to join her local sickle cell organisation. My younger sister is a member of the sickle cell society in London - http://www.sicklecellsociety.org/aboutus.htm
They assist sufferers by providing information to doctors at her local A&E so they can treat her quickly when she has a crises. Its quite important that the doctors are aware of this as they may waste valuable time treating other symptoms.

ty very much
your site was of much use
ty man

Seun:

You're right, it is wrong. Melanin doesn't protect at all from malaria.

It is true though that carriers of the sickle cell gene have a higher resistance to malaria, and because of that we have more sicklers in subsaharan Africa.

You got cause and effect wrong, Seun. Sickle cell anemia is caused by a mutation that occured within the human populations in Sub-Saharan Africa. It arose after the spread of agriculture, so this is a very recent mutation. The mutation is only beneficial in areas where the malaria parasite thrives, that's why it is retained in the population in Sub-Saharan Africa. In other areas it provides no benefit, that's why that mutaion is selected out of the population in e.g. Europe. Sickle Cell anemeia is a recessive trait and will only cause the disease when you inherit it from both your parents. The protection against maleria occurs even when you inherit it from only one of your parents.

Seun:

It is true though that carriers of the sickle cell gene have a higher resistance to malaria, and because of that we have more sicklers in subsaharan Africa.

nferyn:

The protection against maleria occurs even when you inherit it from only one of your parents.

Just to add here that a sickle cell carrier will still suffer from Malaria but the effects will be mild because the parasites only infect the healthy red blood cells and not the sickled shaped cells

But ijebuman how can malaria midly effect the sickle cell carrier if it does not infect the sickle shaped cells?
Is it only a certain amount of red blood cells that become sickle in shape for the carrier or is it not all of the cells??

JosBoy4Lif:

But ijebuman how can malaria midly effect the sickle cell carrier if it does not infect the sickle shaped cells?
Is it only a certain amount of red blood cells that become sickle in shape for the carrier or is it not all of the cells??

For the sickle cell carrier it is only a certain amount of cells that are sickle shaped not all the red blood cells. I'll give you a personal example, i'm actually a sickle cell carrier (AS), my younger brother is not. When i lived in Nigeria and had an attack of malaria, in most cases a dose of nivaquine was enough to get me back on my feet. For my younger brother, he usually has to be admitted and treated in hospital and it takes him a longer time to get over it.
So compared to my brother i usually have a mild attack of malaria.

You can read more about it on wiki, its called the heterozygote advantage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterozygote_advantage#Heterozygote_advantage_and_sickle-cell_anemia

You know Malaria can be called as the African disease because as we all know 90percent of those who die of are Africans. Unlike AIDS it's a very treatable disease but some people don't maybe have the abilities to treat the disease, or simply don't know how to treat it They may even use some medicines that have been diluted and so the parasite may become more resistant and hard to treat! But I hope that all this will disppear one day in our continent!

post #18,

"mosquitoes develop as a result of dirt"

@ latoya, some huge typo u done there boo boo

Because there are mosquitos in Africa

Malaria

It is very worrisome listening to news this days and the issue of malaria and mosquitoes is be discussed,

Millions of people die every day because of Mosquitoes bite and majority are mothers and little children.

By implication if this is not checked there will be growth imbalance in the nearest future in Motherland Africa.

Our leaders? Gathered at Abuja Yesterday to discuss Malaria. Please let me ask how many of them have their children living in Africa and they want to find a solution to Malaria.

What happened to our Primary Heath Centers? Do we all remember the later Prof. Olukoye Ransome Kuti and the good job he did while he was still here with us

Our leaders need to wake up before it is too later

Mosquitoes and malaria can come to an end only if we show the political will and readiness to flight it.

Th only thing preventing the eradication of malaria from the African continent is the "will" to do so . .

Nigerians naturally have the tendency to wait until the worst begins to happen before they react. With all the PhDs in this country we cant control malaria.

I remember when i JJCd into the country some yrs ago, mosquiitoes dealt with my upper-lip and I went down sick for about 3wks. After then i got sick again about 3-4times. Since then ive been mosquito resistant.

I also remember there was one guy in my boarding school days we nicknamed Mosqui, they said he looked like a mosquito,

we keep suffering from malaria because of our dirty environments

I would much prefer to be in Nigeria than the UK if I had malaria. When you tell the doc in the UK you think you have malaria you are rushed (I mean rushed, sirens blazing) to the nearest tropical disease center like you have only hours to live. Here at least the medication is widely available to most and the doctors are experts at treating it.

I feel for the people that can not afford the medicine and would love to see free treatment for malaria given to all who needs it. One day!!

Greatpeter hit the issue right in the head.
"It is good though to take these precausions you highlighted above.
but you people left two things untouched these are ignorance (illiteracy) and poverty."

"Poverty, our government is not doing much about this".

Prevention is better than cure so we should keep ourselves away from Mosquitos!

Pregnant women and children are prone to Malaria as compared to others!
The tropics are hot and allow breeding of this female anopheles mosquito which inject us the merozoites!


Having antimalarials at least once in every six months can help

Some people always get malaria dont know why, when am in nigeria get like average of 4 bites per nite and it dosent affect me maybe once in two years, i guess my blood has something to do with it,

stagnant waters, insects and bacterias reproduce in those conditions

Badman888
Its not every mosquito that bites you must infect you!
Most of them esp thew culex or male mosqitos dont carry parasites a its mostly female anopheles mosquito which need blood for their progeny.

Also being infected by any disease largely depend on the level of immunity at the time!
That why Pregnant mother are vulnerable cos pregnancy ids a condition and young children who are not full developed in immunity!

Remember we have white blood cells which fight in your body and I say you are lucky to have strong immunity! Am also an example cos I visited another part of Africa where so many people got sick but me I was not! Tho you should be having occassional anti-malarials incase your cells wont fight anymore!
It takes so many days for incubation and when parasites penetrate the red cells is when one suffers from those cold and sweat stages

ask god

eveseh:

ask god

OMG


is that the dutch way??

LoverBwoy:

OMG


is that the dutch way??

indeed it is,yes

eveseh:

indeed it is,yes

No, it isn't

nferyn:

No, it isn't

why not?

eveseh:

why not?

Because ask God is not Dutch, it's English

nferyn:

Because ask God is not Dutch, it's English

OK
i agree with ya,
so can u tell me why we suffer from malaria?