k so i was sitting in my social studies class and we were all discussing viruses such as malaria, AIDS etc_{dont ask me why we were discussing a topic like that in socials studies class} and how its seriously affecting africa and then my socials teacher made a statement saying that if these viruses were a huge deal in north america(not that it isnt, its much more worse in africa)that a cure would have been found by now or even years before. Do u ppl think its true? i would like to know ur opinion

they are enough drugs for malaria that cures people, its all blown out of proportion in western world

Sorry shawna, I'm afraid its true, tho our fore fathers had agbo a traditional medicine that seems to treat symptoms of malaria, the most effective drugs are all western and were developed when they came into contact with malaria. We didn't even know what caused it!

yup shagari it was when the missioneries came, that the africans knew malaria was related to mosquitoes, but they now made their drugs which could cure their own people.

i dont know much bout malaria

but i know that there r shots , that can be used to prevent them,

malaria is not caused by a virus 

in a lot of cases, viral infections can't be cured. they can only be managed, or suppressed or prevented with vaccines. this is why the common cold has no cure (and there are just too many kinds of cold viruses for a vaccine to be developed) and doctors will sometime tell you 'ah it is just a viral infection'. also why herpes both oral and genital cannot be cured. the human immune system has also involved in such a way that it takes care of a lot of viruses on its on.

anyhow apart from HIV being a retrovirus, it is also very wise and intelligent, always changing and stuff like that. a lot of viruses are like this too.

actually it doesnt matter if we knew or didnt know what caused malaria. the fact is that it was treatable. quinine bitter as it is, comes from barks of trees found in west africa, and the leaves of another tree are also good for treating malaria i think its dogon yaro. there are many ways to treat malaria today, quinine itself which is not much in use now (very bitter, causes itching) , chloroquine, fansidar, artemisin based drugs like cotexcin(these ones are the future), and other such. the problem with them esp in naija, is people produce fake drugs, or dilute the doses. hence the malaria parasite becomes survives the diluted doses and over time, the drug becomes ineffective (remember this from biology, subject the microorganism to weak doses of medication gradually increasing the dosage, eventually it will become resistant to the recommended dosage) . this is why dora akunyili is being targeted everywhere and there are many strains of malaria parasites resistant to a lot of medications.

what have we learnt then? when you are ill from malaria, finish your course of treatment! even if you feel better. do not let the above happen to you. ensure that NAFDAC registration is on your medicine packet. don't be cheap. try and verify the authenticity of your drugs. finally, put into practice all noted preventive measures including prophylaxics.
more and more people are now turning to traditional ways to combatting the disease.

Thank u gigette i have been trying to find a way to explain that there actually isnt any cure for malaria and that it can only be prevented i was going to use the herpes example like u used or the cold sore but any ways thank u very much u summed up pretty much everything i have been wanting to say i just didnt quite know how to put it together lol


The reason i started this topic was because my teacher said a cure for malaria would have been found 50yrs ago if it were a big deal in northamerica like it is in africa and i was wondering if thats true could it be some kind of conspiracy to just let malaria slowly kill black people

Shawna, you aren't listening to what we are saying.

Cures for malaria exist and we are using them.

Do you think you know more about malaria than we do, because you're in America?

yeah shawna, there is a cure for malaria, more than one actually. who tol u there wasnt?

don't know much about malaria but i do know people are dying from it if there is a cure then why are lots of people dying of it and why does it keep coming back

lol shawna
it keeps coming back firstly for the reasons i mentioned above: ppl dont complete their treatment or take fake or diluted drugs and the malaria parasite becomes resistant, so that future cases of malaria cannot be treated with that drug

even after it is cured. another mosquito can still come and bite you and you get it again and so the cycle begins

you may have malaria and after a while sweat out the fever and the symptoms and signs go away. but the malaria lays dormant ready to strike again at another time until the whole person is weakened. case in point : MKO

malaria can be very serious and dangerous. i'm not talking about the garden variety a lot of ppl get. it can affect the brain (cerebral malaria or sumn like that), my cousin once had it adn she went into a come, but thank God she came out of it. also repeatedly reoccuring malaria can affect the liver (this is kinda what i've seen sha) and just weakens it, i guess from all those drugs

ppl cannot afford these drugs or dont have access to them, or they think its witchcraft or jujut that is doing them, or they think that they will be saved by the blood of jesus thru their crazy pastor. a lot of stuff, they just dont take the drugs adn it gets too late

anopheles mosquitos are still everywhere, ppl still have stagnant pools of water outside their houses and whatnot. so they are still gettn bit

if you're not willing to fight malaria, it can kill you. case in point: bola ige's wife

to be honest, i dont know how so many ppl die of malaria, statistics from the west are usually sketchy. but i guess the above are some of the reasons

There is no cure for malaria.
There are herbs and medication that you can take to prevent malaria
There are herbs and medications that you can take if you have malaria
but there are no herbs and medications that when taken give you complete immunity
im a wrong

no u arent wrong


seun u changed my post gosh am starting to dislike u i thought u were cool but i guess i was wrong

lol what did he change

i said a whole bunch of stuff about him disrespecting me and what not i seriously dont know whats biting him i said there wasnt a cure for malaria and he just came at me saying "do u think u know more about malaria than we do because u're in america " and i was like wtf?

JosBoy4Lif:

There is no cure for malaria.
There are herbs and medication that you can take to prevent malaria
There are herbs and medications that you can take if you have malaria
but there are no herbs and medications that when taken give you complete immunity
im a wrong

IMO, yes, you are wrong. just because nothing will give you complete immunity from malaria doesnt mean that it can't be cured. it just means that you can get malaria multiple times and it can be cured each time (if you do your treatment right)

when something has no cure, it can only be managed and the signs and symptoms repressed. malaria has a cure because once you finish your course of treatment, there is no more plasmodium in your blood (as verified by a blood test). you are not managing anything and you are not suppressing anything.

If a cure is just ridding the body of the virus
then this would mean that there is a cure for AIDS
Since there are patients who have undergone treatment and fully recovered??

gigette but my biology and my socials teacher keep on telling me there isnt am confused maybe u should be teaching my class lol

malaria isnt caused by a virus, so what are you trying to say here?

remember a cure means different things for different diseases. just like in a cancer, a cancer is fully cured when all cancerous cells and tumors are completely excised from the body, we dont usually get this, so we say the cancer has gone into remission, the cancer is still there but its not causing havoc

in the case with HIV/AIDS, if you could expunge all the virus from your body, you would no longer be infected with HIV. but you could still have AIDS, because perhaps by then, your immune system is completely gone and i dont know if you can bring it back. this is why we say there is no cure for HIV or AIDS. the infection and its manifestion AIDS can only be managed and the syptoms supressed to give the person a normal quality of life.

by the way who are the patients that have undergone treatment and fully recovered? treated for what? fully recovered from what?
their T4 cells may have gone up and they may living a normal life but they still got the virus
a few ppl may have had the virus disappear altogther but it still isnt a cure, cos such ocurrences have to be the majority for one to say HIV/AIDS have a cure.

its just like saying someone is cured of genital herpes cos they dont get outbreaks, obviously this aint true

lol they must be crazed!
a lot of doctors in the US and Canada dont even know how to diagnose malaria. if they do find out u've got it, ur quarantined as if you can catch thru the air.

perhaps a cure for them means something different. but look online, the literature supports me

just because present cures dont confer immunity to future cases doesnt mean they arent cures. true we have things like recurrent malaria like if you get malaria today adn then two weeks later or sumn, but that is totally separate from isolated cases in the same individual

thanks for the explanation yeah my teachers are kinda wierd

Sorry parasite my bad.
So the cure of malaria is actually just treating that isolated case
And there is no way to totally immune the humane body from such reoccurances?
Correct?

as far as i know yes.

i don't believe the drugs were designed to confer immunity. your body does build up an immunity to it gradually but i guess thats from dealing with the same sh*t over and over again.

that's why work is being done on a malaria vaccine

now there is stuff that is supposed to prevent u from getting malaria. not sure how they work tho.

@shawna

ur welcome

Ok thanks
I knwo the stuff you are talking about
My Uncle took in February when he went to Nigeria.
Thanks Again for the enlightenment

ur welcome

ooo and a kiss Right back at ya _{two fo you cause of your insight}

I seriously laugh off my ass when people lose thier head over malaria. Is it the same Naija malaria that we are talking about here? Malaria in Naija is like fever and common cold. No big deal and it has a lot of effective remedies herbal and otherwise. Back in Naija at least in my neighbourhood ain't nobody scared stiff over malaria. It is more like 'yeah whatever' ailment that disappears in minutes when you drink the appropriate herbal remedy.

I think oyinbo is adding too much salt, ogbono and okporoko to this malaria bizness.

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I seriously think you teacher is somewhat cracy
just make sure you deliver my message ok!

Fansidar, Amalar herbs drink all of them 4 9ja ur malaria go dissapear its just a big deal in the western world. It kills alot of people in mainly rural arears because they dont have avalabilty to the drugs all those biology yannings are just stories,

Who says there's no cure for malaria?

grafikdon, you're so so right.  I had malaria last week and I'm perfectly okay now, so what are these guys talking about?

@gigette, thanks for the thorough explanation jare.