Malaria as a Deadly Disease

Malaria as a Deadly Disease

By Nwosu Onyekachi Immaculatar

Malaria is a life-threatening mosquito-borne blood disease. The Anopheles mosquito transmits it to humans.

The parasites in mosquitos that spread malaria belong to the Plasmodium genus. Over 100 Trusted Source types of Plasmodium parasite can infect a variety of species. Different types replicate at different rates, changing how quickly the symptoms escalate, and the severity of the disease.

Five types Trusted Sources of Plasmodium parasite can infect humans. These occur in different parts of the world. Some cause a more severe type of malaria than others.

Once an infected mosquito bites a human, the parasites multiply in the host's liver before infecting and destroying red blood cells.

In some places, early diagnosis can help treat and control malaria. However, some countries lack the resources to carry out effective screening.

Currently, no vaccine is available for use in the United States, although one vaccine has a license in Europe.

In the early 1950s, advances in treatment eliminated malaria from the U.S. However, between 1,500 and 2,000 Trusted Sources cases still occur each year, mostly in those who have recently traveled to malaria-endemic areas.

Symptoms

Doctors divide malaria symptoms into two categories Trusted Source: Uncomplicated and severe malaria.

Uncomplicated malaria

Malaria is passed on by the Anopheles mosquito.

A doctor would give this diagnosis when symptoms are present, but no symptoms occur that suggest severe infection or dysfunction of the vital organs. This form can become severe malaria without treatment, or if the host has poor or no immunity.

Symptoms of uncomplicated malaria typically last 6 to 10 hours and recur every second day.

Some strains of the parasite can have a longer cycle or cause mixed symptoms. As symptoms resemble those of flu, they may remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in areas where malaria is less common.

In uncomplicated malaria, symptoms progress as follows, through cold, hot, and sweating stages:

• a sensation of cold with shivering
• Fever, headache, and vomiting
• seizures sometimes occur in younger people with the disease
• sweats, followed by a return to normal temperature, with tiredness

In areas where malaria is common, many people recognize the symptoms as malaria and treat themselves without visiting a doctor.

Severe malaria

In severe malaria, clinical or laboratory evidence shows signs of vital organ dysfunction.

Symptoms of severe malaria include:

• fever and chills
• impaired consciousness
• prostration, or adopting a prone position
• multiple convulsions
• deep breathing and respiratory distress
• abnormal bleeding and signs of anemia
• clinical jaundice and evidence of vital organ dysfunction

Severe malaria can be fatal without treatment.

Symptoms

Doctors divide malaria symptoms into two categories Trusted Sources: Uncomplicated and severe malaria.

Uncomplicated malaria

A doctor would give this diagnosis when symptoms are present, but no symptoms occur that suggest severe infection or dysfunction of the vital organs.

This form can become severe malaria without treatment, or if the host has poor or no immunity.

Symptoms of uncomplicated malaria typically last 6 to 10 hours and recur every second day.

Some strains of the parasite can have a longer cycle or cause mixed symptoms.

As symptoms resemble those of flu, they may remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in areas where malaria is less common.

In uncomplicated malaria, symptoms progress as follows, through cold, hot, and sweating stages:

• a sensation of cold with shivering
• fever, headaches, and vomiting
• seizures sometimes occur in younger people with the disease
• sweats, followed by a return to normal temperature, with tiredness

In areas where malaria is common, many people recognize the symptoms as malaria and treat themselves without visiting a doctor.

Severe malaria

In severe malaria, clinical or laboratory evidence shows signs of vital organ dysfunction.

Symptoms of severe malaria include:

• fever and chills
• impaired consciousness
• prostration, or adopting a prone position
• multiple convulsions
• deep breathing and respiratory distress
• abnormal bleeding and signs of anemia
• clinical jaundice and evidence of vital organ dysfunction

Severe malaria can be fatal without treatment.

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Bottom of Form

Treatment

Treatment aims to eliminate the Plasmodium parasite from the bloodstream.

Those without symptoms may be treated for infection to reduce the risk of disease transmission in the surrounding population.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) to treat uncomplicated malaria.

Artemisinin is derived from the plant Artemisia annua, better known as sweet wormwood. It rapidly reduces the concentration of Plasmodium parasites in the bloodstream.

Practitioners often combine ACT with a partner drug. ACT aims to reduce the number of parasites within the first 3 days of infection, while the partner drugs eliminate the rest.

Expanding access to ACT treatment worldwide has helped reduce the impact of malaria, but the disease is becoming increasingly resistant to the effects of ACT.

In places where malaria is resistant to ACT, treatment must contain an effective partner drug.

The WHO has warned that no alternatives to artemisinin are likely to become available for several years.

Prevention

There are several ways to keep malaria at bay.

Vaccination

Research to develop safe and effective global vaccines for malaria is ongoing, with the licensing of one vaccine already having occurred in Europe. No vaccine is yet licensed in the U.S.

Seek medical attention for suspected symptoms of malaria as early as possible.

Advice for travelers

While malaria is not endemic to the U.S., travel to many countries around the world entails a risk.

The Centers for Disease Control advise travelers to take the following precautionsTrusted Source:

• find out what the risk of malaria is in the country and city or region they are visiting
• ask their doctor what medications they should use to prevent infection in that region
• obtain antimalarial drugs before leaving home, to avoid the risk of buying counterfeit drugs while abroad
• consider the risk for individual travelers, including children, older people, pregnant women, and the existing medical conditions of any travelers

Travelers to places where malaria is prevalent should take precautions, for example, using mosquito nets.

• ensure they will have access to preventative tools, many of which are available to purchase online, including insect repellants, insecticides, pre-treated bed nets, and appropriate clothing
• be aware of the symptoms of malaria

In emergency situations, local health authorities in some countries may carry outTrusted Source "fogging," or spraying areas with pesticides similar to those used in household sprays.

The WHO points out that these are not harmful for people, as the concentration of pesticide is only strong enough to kills mosquitoes.

While away, travelers should, where possible, avoid situations that increase the risk of being bitten by mosquitoes. Precautions include taking an air-conditioned room, not camping by stagnant water, and wearing clothes that cover the body at times when mosquitoes are most likely to be around.

For a year after returning home, the traveler may be susceptible to symptoms of malaria. Donating blood may also not be possible for some time.

Causes

Malaria happens when a bite from the female Anopheles mosquito infects the body with Plasmodium. Only the Anopheles mosquito can transmit malaria.

The successful development of the parasite within the mosquito depends on several factors, the most important being humidity and ambient temperatures.

When an infected mosquito bites a human host, the parasite enters the bloodstream and lays dormant within the liver.

The host will have no symptoms for an average of 10.5 days, but the malaria parasite will begin multiplying during this time.

The liver then releases these new malaria parasites back into the bloodstream, where they infect red blood cells and multiply further. Some malaria parasites remain in the liver and do not circulate til later, resulting in recurrence.

An unaffected mosquito acquires parasites once it feeds on a human with malaria. This restarts the cycle.

Diagnosis

Early diagnosis is critical for recovery from malaria.

Anyone showing signs of malaria should seek testing and treatment immediately.

The WHO strongly advise confirmation of the parasite through microscopic laboratory testing or by a rapid diagnostic test (RDT), depending on the facilities available.

No combination of symptoms can reliably distinguish malaria from other causes, so a parasitological test is vital for identifying and managing the disease.

In some malaria-endemic areas, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the disease's severity can cause mild immunity in a large proportion of the local population.

As a result, some people carry the parasites in their bloodstream but do not fall ill.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/150670.php#causes

The Internet as a Marketing Medium

The Internet as a Marketing Medium

By Shalom Odion

The Internet offers a startling set of advantages as a marketing medium. Technology advances, consumer familiarity and vendor innovation will inevitably drive both marketing programs and customer interaction to center on the Internet. Marketers need to begin now an active exploration of their key initiatives in light of where and how to apply the Internet's power.

The Internet is already an important, and perhaps transformational, marketing medium for business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets. Executives and entrepreneurs must understand how and why this is so by answering these questions: 

How does the Web compare to traditional marketing vehicles?

·         What relationship will emerge between the Web as marketing medium and traditional vehicles?

·         How will advances in technology and increased usage affect the Internet's capability for marketing?

There are criteria that characterize the applicability and power of any marketing medium, whether we define marketing abstractly as the "conception, creation and sustenance" of customers, or more pragmatically as a "purposeful system of activities intended to promote the market exchange of goods or services."

REACH

The marketer's first task is to communicate key messages to the full set of targeted prospects, customers and influencers. As a medium, the Web has quickly achieved very broad reach, and will soon pass broadcast and cable television as the medium with the broadest consistent reach.

ABILITY TO TARGET

For optimal results, the marketer wants to be able to select the precise group with whom to communicate. Both the Web and the closely associated technology of e-mail will eventually provide extraordinary ability to target in both business-to-business and business-to-customer markets. Already the Internet provides more ability to target than many media, such as broadcast, cable or print; only direct mail, telemarketing and direct sales provide more.

Three likely changes could make the Internet the medium with the greatest ability to target. Societal norms for acceptable privacy policy will develop as consumers demonstrate by their actions which targeting information and techniques they see as "net positive." Databases of Internet users' demographic, psychographic, purchase, "anonymous profile" and other behavioral information will grow and be augmented with the enormous existing information available in the non-digital domain. Interactive profiling and mass customization technologies will mature from their currently raw state to deliver consumer experiences that will seem more personal than most other marketing media or sales contacts.

INTERACTIVITY

The ideal marketing medium allows the targeted prospects or customers to talk back right now - to identify themselves, to declare interest and readiness to purchase and even to criticize or complain. Internet and e-mail offer outstanding interactivity, comparable to direct sales at a fraction of the cost per contact. Today only telesales can compete. It is likely that increased ease of use and consumer familiarity will make the Internet the most interactive of marketing media.

AIDA COMPLETENESS

Marketing media have traditionally served only one or two steps of the Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action cycle (A.I.D.A.). For example, advertising can lead a consumer to action, but cannot generally consummate it. Many marketers believe that this inability to span the complete A.I.D.A. cycle is the major cause of "wasted" marketing effort. Consumers who have been motivated to continue in the purchase process are "lost" when they fail to navigate to the next step, which requires engagement in a new medium ("pick up your phone now and call").

The Internet offers unique power here. A customer can move easily from initial awareness through purchase. Only the beer vendor at the ballpark has as powerful an ability to raise awareness and execute the sale in one fluid motion!

Maintaining an accessible recollection of these interactions actually allows an exchange between the user and a Web site to continue for some time, spanning the time delays of the physical world. For example, the Amazon site has a better ability to pick up a "conversation" about a problem with the book ordered last week than do most humans working at a chain bookstore.

CONTRIBUTION TO LEARNING

Ideally, the marketing process should function as a learning system. Database marketers, for example, have made a science of the "closed loop," in which programs are conceived and executed against a database that has been segmented using analytical profiling and predictive applications. The database and even the applications are then updated to reflect the actual performance of the particular marketing program.

Today, only the expensive direct marketing methods - direct mail, telesales and direct sales - can serve easily as a foundation for quantitative marketing learning. Measuring traditional advertising and public relations, for example, relies on subjective assessment and sampling techniques such as Nielsen ratings, which are both expensive and of doubtful usefulness in the smaller segments that characterize so many markets.

In contrast, the Internet already enables unprecedented learning in its ability to capture site navigation information; information retrieval and purchase behavior, and user-supplied preference and profiling information. It is also proving to be an excellent vehicle for conventional market and customer research.

IMMEDIACY AND RELEVANCY

Responsiveness to marketing messages is closely correlated with the "freshness" and applicability of the information conveyed to the recipient. While direct sales and telesales offer the ability to present a timely message, the Internet is vastly superior to all other media in the capacity to deliver messages that are not only timely, but immediately relevant to the recently displayed interests or actions of the customer.

PERMISSION

Seth Godin, founder of Yoyodyne and author of marketing books, argues persuasively that the volume of marketing information aimed at customers has necessitated that we no longer market "to" the customer; instead, we need to market "with" the customer. Practically, this means seeking the customer's permission to begin and then continue a dialogue that will extend beyond one sales transaction.

While direct sales and telesales provide these options, the Internet enables the "permission" decision to be made at lower cost to the vendor and with less inconvenience to the customer.

MULTIPLE PROGRAM TYPES

The Internet has a unique ability to function as a platform or vehicle for a variety of program types. Using the Web and e-mail, we can run awareness advertising, send targeted mail, fulfill collateral requests, conduct a seminar, drive a public relations campaign and offer a premium for an immediate action.

DELIVER APPROPRIATE INFORMATION

The Internet has another unique ability: to provide virtually unlimited information to the seriously interested user, without cluttering simpler messages to a wider audience. The end user can easily navigate his or her way to more and more detailed information and toward a closer relationship with the supplier. It is as though an advertiser could enable a print reader to touch the page of a wordless "branding" ad and instantly receive a mail packet of the appropriate product brochures, specifications, competitive comparisons and local dealer contact.

But the Internet has weak points as well that must be considered.

PRODUCTION IMPACT CAPACITY

It sometimes takes sizzle to engage a sated consumer, and that can mean high-quality graphics, motion and sound. The weaknesses of the personal computer as a multimedia vehicle, combined with inadequate access bandwidth, mean that the production values achievable in Web marketing lag other media significantly. While broadband access, PC improvements, and Internet appliances will inevitably address this issue, it will be at least three years before a mass market emerges that can experience TV- or magazine-quality communications over the Web with reasonable performance.

CUSTOMER ATTENTIVENESS

While an Internet "opt-in" session can be wonderfully compelling for vendor and customer alike, Internet broadcast vehicles - principally conventional banner ads - are far weaker than broadcast advertising in commanding the prospect's attention. It is more difficult to tune out a well- executed TV or radio spot than to ignore a good banner ad.

CONTROL OF USER EXPERIENCE

While the Internet offers great capability for the marketer to be responsive during a customer interaction, it also puts new control of the experience into the hands of the customer.

Traditionally, marketing operated under the assumption that the prospect could be led through a progressive process of information disclosure and purchase commitment. On the Web, this illusion is destroyed - the customer is in control. He or she can dig deeper, or leap to a competitor's site, in a single click.

Thus, we must design our marketing communications for access under customer control. More importantly, a new urgency is created - at every moment; the prospect is free to abandon the process. For example, the inconvenience associated with walking out of a store at the moment of purchase, "upsetting" the sales clerk, is completely absent.

MARKETING FUTURE

Clearly, the strengths of the Internet as a marketing medium far outweigh the negatives. Companies grappling with the issue of whether to market via the Internet are already behind. Companies attempting to build a coherent Internet marketing strategy must begin to believe that the Web is likely to be the center of their marketing future, not simply an adjunct to traditional marketing methods.

Reference

• https://www.strategy-business.com/article/13669?gko=03e90

The Internet Is Knowledge and Knowledge Is Power

Adisa Bolutife is a 22-year-old open access advocate based in Lagos, Nigeria. A graduate of the University of Lagos with a degree in and electronics engineering, he is passionate about issues related to access, technology, inclusion, and Internet Governance. In 2016, Bolutife founded Open Switch Africa, where he leads a group of students, researchers, and academics to advocate for open access in research, education, and data in Nigeria. He is also a co-founder and director of Digital Grassroots, a global initiative that works to improve digital literacy in local communities. He is an Internet Society 2017 Youth@IGF fellow and an alumnus of the UNESCO Youth Leadership Workshop on Global Citizenship Education, Mozilla Open Leaders, and OpenCon 2017.

Like many people around the world, the Internet has contributed largely to the person I am today – building my knowledge base through access to a wealth of information. Without the Internet, a lot of things would not be as easy as they are right now.

As a recent graduate, I can relate to the fact that the Internet has been extremely helpful in aiding and improving student learning and research, as I can cite academic resources online and watch lectures from world class tutors from the comfort of my room. I am a strong advocate for open access in research, education, and data, and the Internet has been a powerful enabler in bridging knowledge gaps between privileged and underprivileged communities. The ability of the Internet to serve as a platform for disseminating information to all and sundry, regardless of race, gender, or nationality is what makes the Internet a global tool trusted by billions of people around the world.

In 2016, I founded Open Switch Africa, where I advocate for an accessible and inclusive Internet where information is not hindered by paywalls, regulation, or lack of connectivity.

Without connectivity we cannot have the vast interconnection that the Internet creates between billions of computers and devices, thereby forming an interconnection between people and information. Information brings knowledge, and knowledge, as they say, is power.

It has become increasingly clear that the Internet is at the core of almost all that we do. With automation and machine learning at the forefront of transforming the scope of future jobs, open education and open data driving the scope of education and research, and social media plus blogs disrupting the status quo in communication, very soon a much larger percentage of the world population will depend on the Internet for their livelihood. This is why it is extremely important, in preparation for the future, that we ensure all voices are heard when it comes to critical decisions regarding the future of the Internet.

The Internet is diversity by its very nature, and youth involvement is crucial to shaping the Internet of tomorrow. Young people are already shaping the online culture in so many ways. They are building their dream Internet. And yet when it comes to policy discussions, they are not at the table.

We need policies that protect us and prepare us for the future of the Internet, while ensuring that no one is left behind.

Visit #CountMyVoice and help build an Internet that’s for everyone!

https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2019/01/the-internet-is-knowledge-and-knowledge-is-power/

Conserving life and livelihood

Does conservation really benefit the poor?

Last week, more than 1,600 people involved in conserving Earth's flora and fauna came to Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was the first time that the Society for Conservation Biology, based in Arlington, Virginia, had met in Africa, and the setting raised a challenging question: does conservation help poor people?

Some researchers think that conservation work will naturally and inevitably benefit local people, because it will sustain resources over time. But conserving animals and plants often means restricting access to them. And as Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, a Ghanaian conservationist, asked those gathered at the opening plenary session: “Do your conservation projects make a difference in village life in Africa?”

Few development projects measure the effects they are having on village life. Credit: A. JOE/AFP/GETTY

To try to get some data with which to answer her own question, Ntiamoa-Baidu, who works with the conservation group WWF and the Ghanaian government, looked at 50 projects in Africa. Of the project managers surveyed, 92% thought that they were making a difference on the community level. But projects that tried to measure the effects — such as a wetland conservation project in Ghana that measures the number of new enterprises created by an eco-tourism effort — were few and far between. Hardly any of the 50 projects had any built-in way to quantify or demonstrate their benefits. “Why is it that we do not have concrete data to support this?” Ntiamoa-Baidu asked.

In a session on the link between conservation and poverty, Peter Kareiva of Seattle, Washington, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, presented an analysis of almost 200 development projects run by the World Bank, some of which had environmental components. Encouragingly, he found that development projects with built-in conservation goals were no less effective than those without them, as measured by the World Bank's evaluations. But his data do not address the issue of how effective conservation projects are if they include specific development goals in their remit.

Many hope that local researchers will take the lead on conservation projects. “If Africans have the empowerment and the tools, they will have to make these decisions themselves,” says Jonathan Adams, also of the Nature Conservancy.

In South Africa, there are hopes that more black people will take careers as conservation scientists. According to Brian Huntley, an environmental adviser to the South African government, black conservation scientists are only now starting to emerge, more than a dozen years after the end of apartheid, and he thinks that their number will increase exponentially.

But for many South Africans, continued poverty and the lingering social effects of apartheid are daunting obstacles to such a career. “When we were kids, we weren't allowed to go to the aquarium or anything like that, so how were we to learn that saving nature was important?” asks Mncedi Nkosi, a young, black, freshwater ecologist at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, a province-level public–private conservation group. “Most people still are more worried about socioeconomic issues, and they don't really understand what I do. I sometimes just say that I clean water for a living.”

About one-third of the 700 papers and posters at the conference were presented by Africans, according to the meeting's organizer, Graham Kerley.

Related links

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Marris, E. Conserving life and livelihood. Nature 448, 111 (2007) doi:10.1038/448111a

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• Published

  11 July 2007

• Issue Date

  12 July 2007

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.1038/448111a

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Further reading

• Shaped by race: why ?race? still matters in the challenges facing biodiversity conservation in Africa

  • Thembela Kepe
  Local Environment (2009
• https://www.nature.com/articles/448111a