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The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation has been buying Viagra, in a good cause: it seems to help beat one of the common malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum.
The mechanism is even analogous to Viagra's better-known effect: it makes infected red blood cells stiffer, which marks them down to be cleaned out by the spleen.
The full journal article is available at PLOS Pathogens: cAMP-Signalling Regulates Gametocyte-Infected Erythrocyte Deformability Required for Malaria Parasite Transmission.
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News About Pfizer's Most Popular Pill
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with none.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 23 2015, @09:56PM
Filter error. No Spam Please!
Are you fucking kidding me? It isn't April Fools' day! Anyway,
Disclaimer: I have been prescribed Leveetra*, which is not chemically identical to Vayagra* but uses the same mechanism of action. The doctor revoked my prescription after I had told him that I was capable of getting an erection without the drug, and had suspected that I was using it recreationally.
Drugs like Vayagra and Leveetra do not cause an uncontrollably rock-hard boner**. They merely put the "ants in your pants*** " and make it much easier to become erect when prompted. It also helps maintain an erection during strenuous sex situations that would otherwise make maintaining an erection much more difficult. The labels say that the effects last a few hours, however, residual effects are still noticeable as long as 24ish hours after taking the drug.
If you are drunk to the point of whiskeydick, then Leveetra will not save you. In fact, Leveetra + drinking heavily is not a good idea because of the drop in blood pressure caused by both drugs.
* Spelled that way to bypass the spam filter
** Unless you have priapism, in which case you should seek medical help immediately.
*** Think first thing in the morning, wearing silk boxers, with a mild hangover.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @10:57PM
Like you, I had a problem with the name of the pharmaceutical.
The headline reflects my attempt to get the story into the queue.
I mentioned there [soylentnews.org] and elsewhere [soylentnews.org] that the filter rejected the attempts I made.
I became irritated and gave up trying to make an actually summary.
The story that did make the front page was the editor's snippet of the El Reg page.
My attempt purposely avoided mentioning the mercenary foundation (who, I am sure, has bought a bunch of Pfizer stock in order to make Gates richer--the main reason his "charity" exists).
For those who haven't previously noticed, I also make the effort to index hyperlinks in a summary|comment to the part of the linked page where the content starts (using accessibility for those who might be e.g. using a screenreader or text-only browser).
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @12:07AM
Do you have any actual evidence to substantiate this allegation you have just made?
If you do not have evidence, and this is merely baseless speculation on your part, then the only responsible thing for you to do would be to admit this and to apologize to us, as well as to Mr. Gates.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @01:11AM
2012 [google.com]
2013 [google.com]
2014 [google.com]
If Gates was "giving away" money, his income would flatten a bit--rather than continue to grow geometrically.
His "charity" invests in privatized prisons.
All that Gates knows is making profit.
His "philanthropy" is simply a tax dodge.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @01:41AM
Please provide the evidence, or apologize.
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:16AM
Why should he apologize for his opinion? Because you don't like it? Get over yourself.
It wasn't offered as fact, so no citation needed.
(Score: 1) by martyb on Sunday May 24 2015, @01:39AM
I saw your note in the submission, but didn't understand what you meant until I saw Ethanol-Fueled's comment where he used a different spelling of the pharmaceuticals and explained it was to get past the spam filter. I thought it was an uncharacteristically short post for you and still couldn't figure out the reason for the brevity.
So, I followed the link anyway and saw what I thought could be an interesting story. I tried to phrase the intro to make clear that you didn't write the whole thing and yet give you credit for the submission. Had I an e-mail address, I would have contacted you for clarification. Under the circumstances, I did the best I could at the time.
Thanks for submitting the story and not giving up after running into the spam filter. (We had problems in the past with someone spamming stories with links to such items; hence the filter.)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @06:06AM
Yeah, I left it there thinking that an editor wouldn't have the big, aggressive defender to deal with and would kick it through the uprights.
Things worked out as well as I could have anticipated, so I'm pretty much pleased.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by martyb on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:04PM
Thanks for the confirmation — given the limited information available, it was a bit of a struggle!
Wit is intellect, dancing.