Wednesday, March 18, 2015

well, duh

NYTimes quotes NEJM article that notes most kids who die of malaria die from cerebral malaria.

guess what? when they get cerebral malaria, their brain swells.

well, duh.

Their answer? Put the kids on ventillators.

“What’s killing these kids is that they stop breathing, because the respiratory center in the brain stem is compressed by the swelling,” said Dr. Terrie E. Taylor, the senior author of the study and a professor at the Michigan State College of Osteopathic Medicine. She spends about half the year working in Malawi. Ventilators might save some children, Dr. Taylor said, by maintaining their breathing through the worst of the brain swelling, which usually lasts for only a few days. Ventilators are not widely available in Africa, but providing them “is not beyond the pale,”

of course, ignore the real problem:

Get rid of stale water where the mosquitos breed.

Use DDT.

USE DDT TO KILL THE BUGS

USE DDT TO KILL THE BUGS 

give prophylactic anti malarials to stop the kids from being infected.

Stop counterfeit/substandard anti malarials from being sold (i.e. get rid of activists who decry drug companies that make money from selling drugs and say that "generics" work, when the dirty little secret is that a lot of the "Generics" are substandard...and get officials to stop counterfeits that look like the brand names from being imported)

True, having clinics treat by adding prednisone/steroids may help, but that wasn't what was investigated.

Remember: Kids have fevers all the time, and they don't always get taken immediately to the clinic. And cerebral malaria can have a very fast onset.

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