SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
News About Pfizer's Most Popular Pill
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 26 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
OK, so you're a Ph.D. Just don't touch anything.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @09:18PM
There is a risk of malaria in the following countries:
Afghanistan
Algeria
Angola
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei Darussalam
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cabo Verde
Cambodia
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
China
Colombia
Comoros
Congo - Democratic Republic
Congo - Republic
Côte d'Ivoire
Djibouti
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
French Guiana
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
India
Indonesia
Iran
Kenya
Korea - North
Korea - South
Laos
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Mali
Mauritania
Mayotte
Mexico
Mozambique
Myanmar | Burma
Namibia
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Rwanda
São Tomé & Príncipe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Sudan
Suriname
Swaziland
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Turkey
Uganda
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Saturday May 23 2015, @09:41PM
Thanks for providing useful information about where to avoid the 'read the rest of this comment' bug.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @10:13PM
Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @11:33PM
Why is malaria present only in total shitholes?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @11:37PM
I'll take my chances in South Korea or South Africa
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @11:47PM
South Korea was a pretty awful place for a long time. It was a warzone for many years, and then was governed by military dictatorships for a while. It didn't become what might be considered a democracy until the late 1980s. It's only within the past two decades that it has been something other than a shithole.
South Africa? Well, when a nation makes Detroit look like a safe and friendly place with a well-developed economy and excellent infrastructure, "shithole" is a word that does come to mind.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @12:55AM
South Korea is still an authoritarian shithole; it has ridiculous censorship and anti-privacy laws and the culture itself promotes authoritarianism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @12:48PM
So its like the US?
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Saturday May 23 2015, @09:29PM
Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? No it's my malaria medication. So while it might help you with your malaria infection it might be somewhat socially awkward having to explain your constant and never-ending erection.
(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.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @09:44PM
now even a mosquito-dick like Ethanol can get it up.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 23 2015, @10:22PM
Fuck you, cocksucker.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @11:20PM
I visit this site once a week, and whenever I do I'm pretty much guaranteed to run across at least one post mentioning penises, cocks, or some other such word.
Why are the people at this site so obsessed with penises?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @05:07AM
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Cock [orgasmicdiscourses.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @11:24PM
NCommander, can you please ban this clown.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2015, @11:27PM
Why should he be banned just for having a small penis? I think that's totally wrong, and very discriminatory. It isn't socially acceptable to treat somebody like dirt just because they may have a handicap.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2015, @12:56PM
Since when is a small penis a handicap? And what even counts as a "small penis"? Despite what people tell their girlfriends, the average is only about 5.5 inches but women don't give a shit [medicalnewstoday.com] (unless you have a micropenis [wikipedia.org] and can't even get past the labia), its only people who love having their mouths full of cock like the GP that care about dick size.
(Score: 1) by TimothyMoore on Friday June 05 2015, @07:31AM
Silagra 100mg [safeformens.com] is another pill used to treat ED. It is not much popular but preform the same to treat the ED