Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Friday February 09 2018, @03:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the blue-pee dept.

According to the World Health Organization, malaria is responsible for approximately 445,000 deaths every year. That number may be due to drop, however, as scientists have found that a human-safe blue dye kills parasites in patients' bloodstreams within two days – that's faster than has ever been possible before.
...
That's where the methylene blue dye comes in.

In field tests conducted in Mali, it was added to artemisinin-based medication, and was found to eradicate all gametocytes in patients' bloodstreams within as little as 48 hours. The dye is typically used in laboratories to distinguish dead cells from living cells, and was reportedly well-tolerated by the test subjects. It does, however, have one interesting side effect.

According to the lead scientist it turns your urine blue, which is reason enough for anybody to take it, really.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Friday February 09 2018, @02:06PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 09 2018, @02:06PM (#635500)

    Figure human blood supply five liters and a billion humans in Africa so you gotta treat 5 billion liters of blood in Africa. Lets say, annually or whatever, at least until the parasite breeds resistance (next year?)

    There's a thousand liters in a cubic meter and Google says just the Congo river alone drains forty thousand cubic meters per second which would be forty million liters a second, close enough to fifty million liters per second not to matter for the sake of argument. So treating about a hundred seconds of water flow of one (admittedly large) river would treat all the humans. Yup you got a scaling problem. Could be overcome, but it isn't going to be easy. Not to mention the distribution problem, no functioning governments over there means we can't distribute "mere" food water and med supplies, so ...

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3